I spoke to Tammy Gooding on BBC Hereford & Worcester this morning about what West Midlands Trains have done across the region at some of there unstaffed stations to improve assisted travel for those with mobility issues and other disabilities.
Tammy started the conversation off by asking me what is it like for disabled people in other aspects of life, is society doing enough to be inclusive?.
I replied by saying ” yes it is and things are getting better, for the last 7 months I have been working with West Midlands Trains to ensure that there unstaffed railway stations are accessible to all”.
“I then added that they are currently looking at the stations that have the highest number of passenger assists across the region, and those stations are having accessibility signage installed so that we as a community find easier to get on and off trains when there aren’t any members of staff around to assist us on and off those services.
Tammy then asked a second question around it being easier to use things like lifts at unstaffed stations when there is no one around to help and I replied by saying ” yeah it definitely is and as I’ve just said the team at West Midlands Trains (WMT) are trying to resolve these issues, they’ve been absolutely incredible in the last few months and they have listened to what I have had to say”.
I continued, “They are actively looking at what they can do to improve there stations not just for me who is a regular rail passenger from Hereford to Birmingham and beyond, but for those across there network who maybe can’t speak out for themselves and actually need that little bit of assistance to get on and off trains”.
” They have actively thought 3 steps ahead which I’ve loved seeing and I hope that continues to happen in the future and other rail operators follow suit once they realise how it can be done and what WMT have done to ensure that things do get better”.
Tammy then asked, is it a bit of a postcode lottery, are some areas better than others and I replied with ” yeah it is a postcode lottery because in the sense of railway stations Herefordshire and Worcestershire railway stations don’t have enough passenger footfall for assistance going though them to benefit from signage such as the accessibility signage that’s being put into other stations towards Walsall and then into Shropshire”.
” Where the 2 areas that I’ve just mentioned do have the footfall because they’ve got a better rail service going into them, so they do have those wheelchair users or those with mobility scooters using the rail network, where we don’t because we have only have one single service from Hereford to Birmingham every hour”.
There are other areas in the West Midlands that have 2 or 3 services per hour into Birmingham so that is the reason why and I completely understand that.
If you would like to listen to my chat with Tammy on BBC Hereford and Worcester it can found below and was aired just after 8am.
Cam talks to BBC Hereford and Worcester’s, Tammy Gooding at Breakfast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0hzkdt7
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Cam
JustBeingCP 