Minister ‘not persuaded’ by calls for new law on access to public transport

A transport minister has failed to back calls for a new law that would address the multiple barriers faced by disabled passengers trying to access public transport.

Guy Opperman was speaking to the Commons transport committee after a survey it commissioned found that only a tiny proportion of those who complain about accessibility on public transport are happy with the response.

Of the 40 per cent of respondents who had complained multiple times, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) said they had never been satisfied with the responses, and just 0.7 per cent said they were always satisfied with the response.

One said: “When complaining I get non-answers and nothing changes.

“There seems to be no way to have a constructive dialogue about the access barrier and no interest in resolving such barriers.”

Of the respondents who said they had complained just once before, 82 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the response they received.

More than 800 passengers responded to the committee’s survey.

Opperman, a newly-appointed transport minister, who leads on access issues in the department, was giving evidence to the committee in the last session of its inquiry into accessible transport.

He told MPs yesterday (Wednesday) that the experiences of those who took part in the survey were “noted and not acceptable” but he was “yet to be persuaded” that new legislation would secure the necessary changes.

He said there was a need to change “attitudes” among transport staff, and that regulators must “do the job they are meant to do”, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Opperman admitted that “getting yourself heard” was “very difficult” and “that has got to change”.

He said: “I would hope we would look at this, go away, and come up with realistic solutions to dramatically improve the experience for those persons.”

More than two-thirds of respondents to the committee’s survey had said they “always” (36 per cent) or “most of the time” (31 per cent) experience access challenges or barriers that make it more difficult to travel, while another 22 per cent said they often face such difficulties.

One respondent said: “I don’t use public transport at all anymore. I can’t cope with buses refusing me space; trains leaving me stranded in the sidings; airside crew destroying my wheelchair; taxis refusing wheelchairs.”

Despite the survey results, and the evidence provided to the committee during its inquiry, Opperman said he still believed that the government would meet its 2030 target of “equal access for disabled people” that was laid out in its 2018 Inclusive Transport Strategy.

He said the government would publish an audit of its progress next year and although he said there would be “isolated exceptions”, he believed it would meet that 2030 target.

Conservative MP Karl McCartney had earlier criticised EHRC for failing to do more to enforce the rights of disabled passengers.

John Kirkpatrick, EHRC’s deputy chief executive, had told the committee that the commission tended to “work with people” to agree action plans to improve access to transport – often through section 23 legal agreements – rather than taking transport operators to court.

But McCartney said the commission’s actions sounded “very touchy-feely” and he suggested that the commission was spending too long in meetings where they “drink coffee and tea and eat biscuits”.

Kirkpatrick pointed to the commission’s three-year legal support fund, which had supported 26 legal actions on transport discrimination, although it had brought only two “strategic” legal cases of its own.

He said the commission felt it did a “respectable job” on that project and had made a difference with its “strategic litigation”, but he admitted there was no member of EHRC’s senior management team now responsible for transport, as it was no longer a strategic aim.

He told McCartney he did not think it would be right to characterise the commission’s approach as “soft”.

Opperman later said he agreed with McCartney’s criticism of the commission.

Asked if he felt the commission should “help the various departments by getting their hands dirty and enforcing what government’s trying to do”, he said: “I listened to the evidence, I’ve looked at the evidence… I manifestly think the EHRC should be doing more.

“Going forward, could they do more? Unquestionably yes.”

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