the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
A newly-nationalised rail company desperately tried to settle three separate cases of discrimination taken against it by a disabled campaigner, just weeks after the firm was brought under state control. GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) offered as much as £20,000 to Doug […]
Disabled campaigners have dismissed a watchdog’s “misleading” new league table that claims to show the best performers in assisting disabled rail passengers. The “benchmarking” report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) claims that two of the best-performing train companies […]
Rail companies are using evidence on the accessibility of their rail services that has come from “mystery shopping” exercises carried out by freelance workers pretending to be disabled, Disability News Service can reveal. Analysis of assignments offered by a market research […]
A government-backed programme to close most ticket offices across the country will lead to a significant fall in the number of staff available to support disabled passengers, analysis of consultation documents has shown. Several of the documents published last week by […]
Six train companies are discriminating against disabled passengers at nearly 300 rail stations across the south-east of England, according to new research. The research shows that c2c (which runs between London and Southend), Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), […]
A leading expert on accessible transport has quit his role as a government adviser after accusing ministers of backing policies on de-staffing the rail network that discriminate against disabled rail passengers, and ignoring his committee’s advice. Matthew Smith, a key member […]
The UK’s largest rail operator has admitted that it has been breaching access laws for more than 10 years across large parts of its rail network, a leaked document has revealed. The Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) document shows the company* has […]
The rail regulator is investigating why an industry body appears to have tried to ensure all assisted travel bookings for disabled passengers were cancelled during Storm Eunice in February. Even though many rail services continued through the storm on 18 February, […]
A train operator will this summer start running mainline rail services that wheelchair-users will not be able to access… with the apparent blessing of the government. It is believed to be the first time for many years that a scheduled mainline […]
A train company which issued discriminatory guidance to its station staff should be stripped of its rail franchise, say disabled trade unionists. The TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference in Bournemouth – attended by representatives of 22 unions – heard from a string […]