The perfect accessibility storm - The Accessible Link #15
The perfect accessibility storm - The Accessible Link #15
How I tried to get home from a hospital appointment.
Hello everyone,
Happy International Day for disabled people!
I had a cardiac MRI on Friday. That would have been the day's most exciting event (cardiac MRIs are a bit unpleasant, but I managed it well). I was glad it was over; I was the last patient of the day and finally left the hospital at 7.45 pm. I looked forward to my warm bed. It was freezing outside. But then I experienced the perfect accessibility storm on the railway - ice, comms systems down; the train got diverted to a different route, unstaffed stations and a broken lift at the terminus station.
I had booked assistance for the train at 8 pm, which I missed by 3 minutes. I booked because my station was unstaffed so late, and it was -3 degrees outside. So, I didn't want to wait until someone from the mobile roving team arrived. I tweeted Southeastern that I was running late but would take the next train, at the latest at 8.30 pm. I was lucky (at least I thought so). I managed to get there at 8.07 pm. The assistance was quick at Waterloo, and I was sure I would be home soon. The trip usually takes less than 30 minutes.
A phone call from the control room
At London Bridge, the next station after Waterloo, there was the first sign that something was off. A member of staff came with the boarding ramp. At first, I thought another wheelchair user wanted to board, but the man looked at me. I explained I was going to New Eltham; he was puzzled and left.
Before the train reached Lewisham, I got a phone call on my mobile. It was the control room of the train operator Southeastern. Well done to whoever had the idea of calling me. I guess they had my mobile number from the booking system, but I wasn't on the train I had booked. So, someone did something clever to prevent even more issues.
The man from the control room called me to tell me my train had been diverted and would not go to New Eltham. He said they had comms problems with London Bridge. The man had been told to get me off the train at London Bridge, but he didn't know why. The control room offered me a taxi from Dartford (another good move in theory). I asked him if another station not far from me on this line was staffed. He said he would try it but couldn't promise anything. The station wasn't staffed. Nobody came, so I had to go to Dartford. That's the terminus station in Kent.
A broken lift
Then, the train stopped at Barnehurst, a tiny, inaccessible station in Kent. Not staffed. The driver announced that the train might be terminated here. Dartford was full of diverted trains, and he couldn't enter. I was sure this wasn't my terminus station as I couldn't leave it. Not accessible and not staffed. The control room then changed its mind (maybe because of me) and allowed the train into Dartford. A staff member waited for me, who apologised and told me a taxi wouldn't be an option because the lift was out of service. I couldn't even leave the platform.
That was the moment when I knew I had experienced the perfect accessibility storm. The staff member told me I should go to the train opposite; it would go to New Eltham at one point. At least it was warm, but I was the only passenger.
No driver
After 10 minutes, he returned and said they had no driver for this train, and his supervisor said that this situation was unacceptable. That was the first time I looked at my Apple Watch to check my heart rate. I should avoid stress, I was told, and that wasn't exactly a situation for stress prevention.
Then they started moving trains around. After another 10 minutes, another train appeared on the platform where I had arrived before. After 2 hours, I made it home. My Triride battery no longer showed one bar when I finally came home.
Lessons learnt?
Kudos to the control room. They tried their best. Driver-only-operated trains are a problem in situations like that. I couldn't leave the train at an alternative station because the stations weren't staffed either. With no staff on board, no staff at stations, I was trapped. I need to mention level boarding. I could have left at several stations on my own if the train had level boarding.
Broken lifts at terminus stations are an absolute no-go. Dartford hadn't even reported the lift as broken, or if they did, the system hadn't been updated. When I was on the second train, Dartford still showed all lifts in service. Terminus stations are the last resort when a wheelchair user gets overcarried or diverted on a different route. If they can't leave the station, they are trapped.
Some interesting links
In April, I wrote in this newsletter, "The times when uneven surfaces were used as an excuse for not making footbridges accessible should be over", about the planned inaccessible footbridge in Copmanthorpe. After a lot of pushback from the local community and disabled people, an inquiry was launched. Before the inquiry was even finished, but after spending a lot of money, Network Rail cancelled plans to close a level crossing on the main line south of York and replace it with an inaccessible bridge.
Wheelchair users get their own pedestrian crossing signals in London. The new signals that show a manual wheelchair and a powerchair user are following LGBTQ+ and 'green woman' pedestrian crossings.
There is a movement of wheelchair users building their own wheelchairs. The page shows so-called "Open Source Wheelchairs", Do-it-Ourselves wheelchair designs and building methods.
Something to watch
How not to treat wheelchairs when loading them into a plane.
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Video description: Loaders at an airport let wheelchairs slide down a long steep ramp next to an aircraft. The wheelchair bumps against the end of the ramp, rolls over and lands on the tarmac of the airport. The loader then grabs it and puts it upside down on a trolley.
Something to read
Bookriot has published an excellent list of new(ish) books by disabled authors. I haven't read most of them yet, but I added many of them to my "To read" list.
Some final words
"It's interesting and possibly significant that non-disabled people seem overall to be more interested in stair-climbing wheelchairs than actual wheelchair users." (Andrew Pulrang - he has a Substack newsletter called Disability Thinking Weekday)
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Who is writing this newsletter?
I’m Christiane Link, and I improve the customer experience in aviation, transport, and travel. I worked as a journalist for over two decades and travelled extensively for business and leisure. I’m a wheelchair user. If you want to read more from me, follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Bluesky or Mastodon. You can also reply to this email if you want to contact me.