To be disgusted by this?

[SerenDippitty]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-44858107

What if it had been another mother with a prank occupying the wheelchair space? Would she have felt entitled to ask her to move?

Oh yeah and when the next train came I just got on it without the ramp anyway. Horrible power crazed ticket barrier person being unpleasant for no reason.

The woman is holding her baby on the video. She had booked the seat near to the space - not the space itself.

Then the "can't hold baby" excuse was bollocks. She should have waited for the next train.

I have booked a wheelchair space on a train using the accessibility service. When I booked it they asked if I also wanted to book a seat to transfer into or if I would stay in the wheelchair. So whether this woman was sat in the scooter or not is irrelevant.

Was there really nowhere else on the entire train that the pram could go?

if lady with disability needed to get out of train quickly the vehicle should be quickly available - babies can be carried - the guard was wrong - lady was sitting as near to her vehicle as possible.

DGR I know and I'm ashamed to say I've not the strength to keep on struggling with travelling or benefits.

That guard needs to be fired. What a prick.

Off topic but isn't the Canadian accent one of the most beautiful to listen to? There's a Canadian woman I work with who frequently presents seminars etc I could listen to her all day!

And did the whole train carriage of people just sit there looking intently out of the window while this was happening? Did no one say, "For goodness sake let's apply some common sense and common decency here?"

It appears not.

crunchy its hit and miss unfortunately. Some companies have a blanket not book policy for disabled spaces, some can't be bothered to book it when you ask, some trains they show as bookable, some they're not and are first come, first served.

tinkly people don't. When I had my hand broken after being dragged from my seat no one did anything, except suddenly look embarrassed at the floor or out the window or there were those who found it funny, laughed and joked at the funny idiot on the floor.

No one said or did anything.

but when I got the courage to go on that same train again, some people spoke to me and said they were ashamed and apologised (it was a commuter train) - there was no social media, I'd not told anyone (except my useless complaint) so they did so because they felt bad and I told them next time to help, not assume everyone else will, because those who spoke to me said they'd assumed someone else would help.

So if you see it, help. Even if there are others, help. The person needing it needs to know there is kindness!

And did the whole train carriage of people just sit there looking intently out of the window while this was happening? Did no one say, "For goodness sake let's apply some common sense and common decency here?

I'll guarantee that for a fair few of them "common decency" means disabled people should really keep out of sight. Who needs to see that on a day out. Quite spoils the day.

Yes I hadn't know that until this thread. With my regional train company you can't book it online, but you can through a phone service. And the guards at my local station enforce the booked spaces.

Yes I hadn't know that until this thread. With my regional train company you can't book it online, but you can through a phone service. And the guards at my local station enforce the booked spaces.

Keep that very quiet. It's obviously an oversight.

Most of the fault lies with the guard; he belongs to that small group who think because they have a little uniform and badge they are have a right to act like little sergeant majors!

I'm surprised by it, I rely on buses for the school run and frequently come across bus drivers that don't care about the law. I always move for a wheelchair or scooter but it pisses me off that it's not enforced. My bus goes past a care home and a hospital so it's quite often and some drivers try to say no you can't come on-board there's a buggy on the bus so I stand up and shout at them to let the person get on it's their priority, I hate that it has to come to that, I hate looking like an idiot mum with a buggy, they don't really give a shit they just want to get moving asap, the ones that do this tend to drive off before you can even get close to the seat so I slide down the bus with my buggy.

I'm not surprised by it*

Most of the fault lies with the guard; he belongs to that small group who think because they have a little uniform and badge they are have a right to act like little sergeant majors!

Personally I think most of the fault is with society, and the way it's allowed the less able to be marginalised over the last few years. It's a little unfair to blame an individual that's been bought up in that culture.

The woman with the pram was also disabled, although sitting on a disabled seat. The baby was supposed to go into the pram as she couldn't hold it safely

The “there must be more to it” brigade are of that view because admitting that this is how it happens is admitting that we live in a country which would rather the disabled not exist or at the very least enter into their space.

If something bad happens then it must be the disabled person at fault, and while it of course goes without saying that nobody is perfect and that people with disabilities can do bad things on occasion, that doesn’t mean that when bad things happen to disabled people the disabled people are automatically to blame because a non disabled person wouldn’t and couldn’t possibly behave like that. Except they do and he did.

I am currently going through the PIP application process and in spite of the fact that I have a long-term disability for which I was already claiming DLA they are not interested in that but instead are focusing on my recently acquired life-limiting illness in order to give me as little as possible. The frankly humiliating conversation I had to have with a telephone assessor had to be heard to be believed. She tried to downplay everything I said, as good as accused me of lying, tried to get me to downplay my symptoms and the list goes on. I will now have to attend a face to face assessment and have been told I am not entitled to a home assessment.

I had heard horror stories about this process before and hoped that they were isolated incidents. However I am now of the firm belief that the process is designed to humiliate people with disabilities as much as is possible by asking questions such as why they haven’t committed suicide yet or when they caught downs syndrome.

Had a conversation with DP saying that he is just horrified that this kind of thing still happens in this country, to which my response has been that actually it would be better living somewhere where there are no entitlements because at least then you’re not under any illusions.

The train guard in this instance should be publicly named and shamed and sacked for gross misconduct. He’s on video and is bang to rights.

Hawkie The space is first come.

some drivers try to say no you can't come on-board there's a buggy on the bus so I stand up and shout at them to let the person get on it's their priority

Careful you don't get an ASBO.

If you don't shout they say claim they didn't hear you!

Agree with Diamond - in many ways it was easier before there were legal requirements for people to provide accessibility where reasonable, because you didn't expect access and people were often willing to go out of their way to help the poor disabled person (vom!)
Now life should be much easier but is in practice a series of disappointments - staff 'don't have time' to unlock the step-free gate at my local station, 'it's too much hassle' to have toilets open at the advertised hours, the announcements say how long the train is but then I miss the train as its half the length and I can't run back to the front of it in time, the visible displays in the trains display the wrong station so I missed my stop the other day... And that's just in the last fortnight!
Anyone want to bet on Southern's Delay Repay coughing up for the trains I missed because they stopped halfway down the platform?

The woman with the pram was also disabled, although sitting on a disabled seat. The baby was supposed to go into the pram as she couldn't hold it safely

She was not disabled, broken arm or not.

The space was not bookable. First come gets the space.