North Wales train stations unfit for disabled

Only 45% of stations are fully usable by someone in a wheelchair, and 83% are completely understaffed. These are truly terrifying statistics for those that get around by a wheelchair and want to use the train. If someone were to get off at one of these stations the could be stranded there until the next day if it was late enough for the train to stop service for the night. Most of the stations either have stairs, cobble stones and grades that are too steep to use. This whole problem is made worse by scenarios of workers going home for the night and locking down wheelchair lifts and elevators. So stations that were supposed to be usable by the disabled are now terrifying traps where they cannot get out of the station. This leaves the disabled person open to mugging as well as non existent access to emergency personnel if they had a medical condition. There are few solutions as both the local and national government say that it is too expensive to fix all the trains and stations, and that there are other ways to get around. Unfortunately for those on fixed incomes that alternate way consists of finding an expensive cab that can take a wheelchair and is wiling to stop and help you get in. We have reported previously about cabbies that routinely drive past disabled people because they do not want to deal with a wheelchair and someone that needs physical help to get into the car. (Source: Dailypost.co.uk)

It is obvious that an ADA type law needs to be passed in New Wales. Money should not be a reason to cordon off the disabled to only those places in the city that you want them to go. Public transportation should be for everyone, not just the able bodied. The disabled have every right to go anywhere without worrying that they may be put into a dangerous situation that may take hours to resolve. There is no reason to force a person to sleep in their wheelchair because the lift is locked and the employee that handles this has gone home for the evening. Good for them, too bad the disabled coming after them won’t be able to get home because the lift is no longer available. Why can’t the lift be automated so that an employee isn’t required and that a disabled person could drive their chair into it and be moved off the platform. There are very simple ways to fix most of these problems using nothing more than concrete and some workers. Fit all the stairs and steep entrances/exits and remove all the cobble stone. That would fix many of the sites and wouldn’t require any more work or money. In the mean time maps should be plastered everywhere showing where the disabled can and should not go because of physical barriers. The disabled should never be allowed to enter a situation that would confine them for the night.

Perhaps emergency phones can be installed in areas known to be traps so that help can be called. That wouldn’t solve all the problems but at least the disabled person could get out of the station and get to their destination safe and sound.