Railing against the railways
- 13 Jan 06, 12:00 AM
You'll have to forgive Crippled Monkey, but I'm having one of those days where I slap my hand against my forehead and cry "I don't believe it!" in my best impersonation of Victor Meldrew.
So here's a tip for rail companies: you really shouldn't be leaving a disabled passenger stranded on a platform after your staff have told him that they're "too busy" to help him board his train. Now this would be shocking in any circumstances, but there's much more chance of your company's shocking lack of service if the passenger was Bert Massie, chairman of the Disability Rights Commission. Oops.
(Oh, and to the Mirror, who reported the story, Crippled Monkey respectfully suggests that you might want to consider changing that reference to "the wheelchair-bound 55-year-old").
In other incredulous news, did you know that the United Nations is currently in the middle of working on a treaty on the rights of the world's 600 million disabled people? The committee includes all 191 UN nations, with an unprecedented number of disabled people involved. Sounds great, huh? They've been working on this since 2001, too. So why have they only just got round to making sure that the project's documents are for blind and visually impaired delegates?
Comments
re your article on the railnet work stockport station has been renovated at a staggering several millions including thousands of pounds for cycle lockers however thet can not afford a few hundred pounds for a heavy duty wheel chair to assist the disabled to get from the rail entrance to their destination platform the railways like every one else has had the 10 years that was given by the government to provide facilities for the disabled they have provided the bare minimal service only at the very big stations can you get some assistance their should be a coach provided for wheelchair users and mobility scooters that are not yet allowed on trains the excuse given is that scooters and electric wheelchairs use batteries that could be assumed as dangerous if turned over on their sides this is not so the batteries used today are gel packs and dont spill any fluids at all why not compromise and have one coach for disability appliances and mobile phone users that way everyone wins the toilets on trains need easier access also. people with severe walking problems like myself find it extremely worrying when nature calls and the trains toilet auto matically becomes a obsticle course to be conquered, lets face it the government has known about these problems for years but nothing gets done even when deadlines are set things will get better in time but how long?
I think the answer is simply ARROGANCE AND BEUROCRACY