Following my entry above, I e-mailed LRT buses and received the attached response. I have also e-mailed the relevant MSP's for my ward.
See attached response:-
Thank you for your email comments.
Lothian buses have not announced a new pram policy. The background to
our pram policy is that under our Conditions of Carriage unfolded prams
have not been carried on our buses since the introduction of one man bus
operations in the "70's" when buses entrances had steps and could not
accommodate wheelchairs, however lightweight, folded buggies could be
accommodate in the luggage rack when space is available.
With the introduction of the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility
Regulations 2000, which required all new buses to be low floored and
provide a wheelchair area, space became available for one unfolded
buggy when this area was not required by a wheelchair users.
In the interest of safety wheelchair users when using the space were
instructed to face the rear of the bus, positioning their chair with
their back to the padded panel with the brake applied. An unfolded buggy
should also be placed with the back of the buggy against the padded
panel with the brake applied however prams could not be placed in a
similar safe position and our policy of not accepting prams remained
unchanged.
The primary role of new accessible buses was to allow disabled and
particularly wheelchair users access to public transport which unlike
buggies users had previously been denied to them and who have no choice
but to use a wheelchair space when travelling and the dimensions of the
wheelchair space (1200X 700) were set by the Disabled Persons Transport
Advisory Committee based on a reference wheelchair size. The reason for
setting this size was to allow disabled people to purchase a suitable
wheelchair which could be accommodated on any low floor/wheelchair
accessible bus. There are no similar guidelines for the purchase of
buggies and prams and while parents with children and buggies have
travelled on low floored buses for many years now without problems, some
parents have purchased prams which are not suitable for travel on our
buses and our staff in bringing this to the attention of these
passengers are only implement a policy which has been in place for many
years.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) amended 2002 regulations
requires that a driver must ask a person to vacate the wheelchair space
if it is required by a wheelchair user. This can includes passengers
such as a parent with a buggy and should therefore be foldable and
small enough to be safely stored in the luggage rack if required and
passengers should not be offended if ask by a driver to do so.
Given the hundred or more designs of buggies, we can only give drivers
outline advice on there suitability. since the decision on whether any
item including a baby buggy, can be carried safely has be to at the
discretion of the driver based on individual journey circumstances and
I have attached a sample of the guidelines of types of
buggies/pushchairs acceptable on our buses
Our Conditions of carriage can be found on our website under Disclaimer,
and I have also attached a copy of these.
Public transport providers have to balance the needs of all passengers
and can only ask that each group considers the needs of others .
I hope that the above background information with explains our pram
policy and on behalf of Lothian buses may I thank you for contacting us
on this matter.
Your sincerely
John Quinn
Customer Services Manager