i think public transport is quite ok actually.

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what i mean is, that where i live, surrey, most of the buses seem to be designed with wheelchair acess in mind. i havent had any trouble rolling my pushchair onto a bus for more than foour years now. have even got the double urban detour on, just pushed it along. in fact there is only one, minor place, that i havent been able to take my double buggy.
now its been a long time since ive had to use public transport to get to work, so i cant say anything about that. but i dont think public transport is quite as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
feel free to shoot me down in flames

its getting better is all i can say. as long as you can get to the bus stops that is.

I always use it for going into Town. It's going anywhere else that it lets you down!

want to come to Wellingborough??? No buses with wheelchair access, several areas of town don't have a bus service, while one area has 3 that run through it!

our bus service is good too, easy access for dd's wheelchair and ds sits by me whilst she is in her little parking spaces. The entertainment is free (off all the weirdos) and it really isnt expensive either. We catch the train most places too and they are always helpful with dd wheelchair down steps etc

Where I live we have one bus a week which goes to the out of town tescos. Bugger all use for going into town or to the railway station for example.

I am very spoilt then. i bus every 15-20 mins max. If i walked 10 mins then get another (AIR CONDITIONED) route which goes every 7-8 mins. Night buses every hour only. (Reading BTW)

oh and no buses on a Sunday (well none that I've ever seen!).

but what about the trains?

what a lottery it all seems to be.
qoq where do you live?

we have free, yes thats free buses to sainsburys and tescos aswell, and you dont even have to be disabled

We have no car so rely on public transport. The buses are unreliable. They are also very expensive. A 10min journey into town costs £1.40 for an adult and £1 for a child. Now that we have to pay for ds1(5) it's almost cheaper to get a taxi.

The buses are good if you want to wheel on a pram but a nightmare for wheelchair users. I watched one man I know trying to manoeuvre his wheelchair into position. He is an ex-Para and so fortunately had the upper-arm strength to eventually manage it but I doubt many others could have done it. It's probably not so bad if you have someone to wheel you on but it doesn't give you much independence.

Would cost £36 for me to get to the coast, 60 miles away. Disgustingly expensive IMHO and I'm sure it would be cheaper in a car. Plus it would take 3.5 hours to get there.

We now use public transport since selling the car about a year ago, mainly for long distance journeys, and I agree, the buses in towns seem to have it sorted, but try getting a large buggy or a wheelchair onto a coach or a (usually overcrowded) train .

I don't drive and use public transport a lot, and always have done, (including with a double buggy and two under 2). I've very rarely had major problems. (Two that I can think of, both involving cancelled trains.)

It's easier of course if you repeat familiar routes - so you know what access is possible.

Now the boys are much older (6 and 8) I much prefer travelling by train than by car - it's just so much more civilised.