Another train company Another mobility scooter user.

[HelenaDove]

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/train-company-faces-calls-to-rip-up-scooter-policy-after-latest-shameful-episode/

Happy to let her buy a ticket though after she made it clear that she uses a scooter.

The other obvious issue with trains and rail stations is they can be very crowded. In an ideal world everyone regardless of age or disability would be able to catch a train but sometimes it's simply too dangerous.

There are size limits depending on the train company, and for some you need a permit for your scooter to prove it can go on the train.
www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/44969.aspx

And for buses you're meant to be assessed before you use them
www.independentliving.co.uk/advice/can-your-scooter-go-on-public-transport/

@Confuzzlediddled - would you mind letting me know what type of scooter you have? I’m just starting to look into using a scooter occasionally and yours sounda good.

No-one needs a scooter (there is always the option of a powered wheelchair for those who can't walk any distance) and scooters are much larger than other mobility aids

WTAF? [hnm].

It’s just taken me about 18 months to admit, and come to terms with the fact, that i need a mobility scooter. We just bought a new car and
spent money on having a hoist fitted to it so that if i want to go out on own I will be able to.

It strikes me that a lot of these transport companies need to get their staff in and do some training days and maybe sack those who’ve publicly shamed people on scooters.

@PalePinkSwan I have a pride go go traveller elite, I love it and it changed my life!

I have Komfi Rider Aerolite plus which is v similar to the gogo. I feel exactly the same about it - it's given me the world back. It was described as "a neat little chariot" by someone yesterday, which I liked - could do with blades on the wheels sometimes

No-one needs a scooter (there is always the option of a powered wheelchair for those who can't walk any distance) and scooters are much larger than other mobility aids.

What an ignorant, ableist comment. You clearly know nothing about scooters, powered wheelchairs or the needs of disabled people. I need a scooter because they have double the battery life and travel distance of a powered chair. It's also more manuverable and nippy thus allowing me to keep up with my children.

If I were buying again new, I'd probably get one with a gel battery. Good performance and, importantly, very lightweight.

PerkingFaintly yes, a gel battery would be on my list. Along with suspension. Though that adds to the size and weight...

www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/dawlish-blue-badge-note-sainsburys-1896076?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar#

Disgusting! I must admit, I do sometimes look for blue badges in windscreens as I go past, and silently fume at those without them, but if someone has a badge they have a badge regardless of what they look like. They're hard enough to get!

That's simply inhumane and all about train companies making huge profits by squeezing us in like cattle.

I knew disabled people who were using mobility scooters 30 years ago. There has been plenty of time for train companies to respond to this.

OK scooter haters Whats the excuse for this then A wheelchair user.

I look forward to the mental gymnastics from the scooter haters.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/wheelchair-user-furious-disabled-seat-13122788?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

It's a bit difficult- mobility scooters come in so many different sizes. The one in the article should have been able to be accommodated, but there is a perception that a mobility scooter implies an ability to walk, and can be folded down. Some of them are huge- as a PP has said. They are road using ones-I'm not sure how they could be accommodated at the size they are. It's like anything- common sense should prevail- if you can fold it down- do so. If not, then people should understand that. But I think that the increasingly prevalence of these will start to cause similar issues to buggies that can't/won't be collapsed

We were at the station the other day, luckily my H who uses a scooter when out, wasn't with us. We had to go up the steps, over the railway line, then down more steps as the lift was broken. Had my H been with us, we'd have had to go all the way home again and not go out.

"but there is a perception that a mobility scooter implies an ability to walk, and can be folded down"

people who use scooters have limited mobility. Some cant walk at all some can walk a bit.

Disabled people are indivuduals you do know that right?

Who do you think is responsible for these perceptions.

Its also funny how these travel companies temporarily bucked their ideas up during the course of 2012 isnt it? The year that London was hosting the Paralympics. Because it just wouldnt have done to have these kinds of stories in the papers during that year against the backdrop of London 2012.

They managed to do it then so these companies can do it permanently if they really wanted to. Its a combination of prejudice and laziness behind this attitude.

We were at the station the other day, luckily my H who uses a scooter when out, wasn't with us. We had to go up the steps, over the railway line, then down more steps as the lift was broken. Had my H been with us, we'd have had to go all the way home again and not go out.

This.

It's something people not dealing with disability often don't understand.

Leaving the house while disabled is something that can often still be done, it's just the logistics are incredibly fragile and everything needs to run like clockwork. If some quite small thing goes wrong, that's it, game over, go home. You don't have the flexibility to work round even quite minor issues.

It can be something apparently trivial: a car parked on the pavement or over a drop curb, a quarter of a mile from your home; an unfortunately positioned roadworks barrier or pile of sand; someone who's left the bins out 2 days early (and just forget about leaving the house at all on bin day).

It's not difficult to publish maximum scooter sizes, this is the spec for my scooter :

Overall Length 100.3 cm (39.5")
Overall Width 49.5 cm (19.5")

Here is the spec for a random large powerchair I found online:

Overall Width: 71 cm
Overall Length: 140 cm

So where is the justification that my scooter isn't an acceptable size but this powerchair is? Its both wider and longer than my scooter - yes there are smaller power chairs on the market but my point is the perception that a chair is fine - incidentally this particular chair costs £7500, my scooter was approx £700, a bit of a difference!

This is why there's the scheme I mentioned before to register your scooter to be allowed to travel on trains, and guidelines as to what size can be accommodated. Yes it's a pain (so much so that i haven't bothered) but in theory it should work - there are different sizes and classes of scooters, and some of the biggest ones just can't be accommodated on trains.

They fucking did it AGAIN AFTER they promised they wouldnt AFTER she had been visited at her house by one of the bosses. ON THE SAME DAY as it was shown on The One Show.

WARNING..............its distressing to watch.

twitter.com/AgonyAutie/status/1035207941576581120

This is precisely why I and my disabled Mum rarely if ever travel via train. For one thing, tickets are reaching the point of being ludicrously expensive and trains are unwelcoming and unaccomodating of the disabled.

bump

I couldn't watch it all, it's absolutely disgusting how she's been treated...