Draft transport accessibility action plan consultation
Although there are many issues that need to be raised in this consultation one important aspect is the loss of guards on trains which will make travelling by rail even more arduous for disabled people than it already is.
As we well know, guards and station staff are absolutely crucial to ensuring safe, secure and accessible rail services for all. This message though is lost to the Rail Minister who has launched a consultation on what action Government, regulators, transport operators or providers can take to increase accessibility, at the same time as the axing of staff on the service.
With 13.3 million people reporting a disability in the UK in 2015/16 the importance of this government consultation cannot be ignored. It is 73 pages long and covers all transport forms. Everyone can respond in detail to its questions if they want to.
However I am writing because it is essential that everyone responds stating that they want more not less staff at stations and on trains. It is all the staff on the railway who provide invaluable information, help, assistance, advice, security, safety and re-assurance. They must be retained at stations and on trains if disabled, old and vulnerable passengers are not going to be discriminated against and are free to travel as and when they want, safe in the knowledge that help is close by.
The full document can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/draft-transport-accessibility-action-plan
You can e-mail as an individual AAPConsultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk or write to
Accessibility Action Plan Consultation
Department for Transport
Zone 2/14
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 4DR
You only need to provide your name and address and state you want your comment about the need for more staff at stations and on trains noted in respect of this Accessibility Action Plan consultation. You should state you are writing as a passenger or as a disabled person and do it by the 15th November.
It is vital that responses are returned to the government and if everyone sends a clear message they will have to listen. Please respond now and share this e-mail with friends and family asking them to do the same.
Apart from a few mishaps the assistants who help us on trains, boats and planes do a superb job. I know that without their assistance I would not be able to travel at all. It is very stressfull when you miss your station, or miss a flight because of mistakes. Those were genuine errors. I hate to imagine what it would be like with no staff to assist us. More Government cuts for the disabled because we are the group in society that are treated this way and the public accept it. I hope they look long and hard at how cutting assistants for the disabled has a profound impact on disabled peoples lives. These kind of restrictions isolate us even more than we are already. They restrict us the right to travel in the equal way to able bodied people and keep a lifeline open between friends and families.