‘Eye-opening’ report calls for action on ‘inconsistent and unpredictable’ bus services for disabled passengers

An “eye-opening” report has called for action to address the “inconsistent, unpredictable and sometimes inaccessible services” that disabled bus passengers have to put up with.

The report is based on research that aimed to understand the main challenges faced by different groups of disabled bus passengers, and how they could be addressed.

The report, by the campaigning charity Bus Users UK, details the experiences of 32 disabled bus passengers across England, Scotland and Wales.

Each of them documented their bus journeys in a two-week diary, while they also took part in interviews with researchers.

The report, Why Are We Waiting?, describes barriers relating to inaccessible bus stops; the design of buses; the attitudes of bus drivers and fellow passengers; and timetables and other audio and visual information.

Among particular barriers the passengers have faced are a lack of seating or shelter at bus stops; obstacles such as high kerbs and bins around bus stops; wheelchair spaces that face away from live information displays; and outdated timetable information.

Data collected by Bus Users UK shows that 4.5 per cent of all bus complaints in 2022-23 were related to disability or accessibility.

One of the disabled passengers who took part in the research, Clara*, described how standing for longer than five minutes means she can feel too tired to complete the rest of her journey.

She told researchers: “If there’s a seat at that stop, I’d probably sit down and stay – if the next one was due in 10 minutes, I’d wait… but if there was no seat and it wasn’t due quite quickly, I’m going home and that’s it, I’m done.

“If I’m going for an appointment, I’m cancelling it. If I was due somewhere, I’ll send my apologies.”

Most of the wheelchair-users who took part said they had been in situations where people with pushchairs or buggies would not willingly give up the space on a bus assigned for wheelchair-users.

Many of those who took part in the research said they had had negative experiences with bus drivers, often because of communication problems.

Katya, from Southport, told the researchers she had regularly tried to take the bus but stopped because drivers would make excuses for refusing to let her on board in her powered wheelchair.

She said: “They’d say that I had to have insurance to be in a wheelchair and that I had to be on the road.

“They would say their ramp wasn’t working. They would say there was a pram in the space so I couldn’t get on, all of that.

“And it just became that you couldn’t go anywhere.”

Grant, from Wales, said he was worried about the “floating” bus stops that have been introduced locally.

He is visually-impaired and said the design – where a cycle lane is placed between the bus stop and the pavement – puts people at risk of colliding with cyclists when they exit the bus.

Many of those who took part said audio and visual information on buses tended to be ineffective because of malfunctions, displaying the wrong information, or because it was hard to view for those in the priority and wheelchair spaces.

Ruth, who has a physical impairment, said the unreliability of buses meant she could no longer rely on them for important events such as hospital appointments, so she had to spend more money on taxis.

The report concludes: “Efforts to improve accessibility and inclusion have had to balance the needs of passengers with the demands on operators to deliver commercially viable services.

“The result for disabled passengers has been inconsistent, unpredictable and sometimes inaccessible services as operators and local authorities have at times had to make the difficult decision to run sub-standard services over no service at all.

“This needs to change.”

Among its recommendations, the report calls for collaboration between government, the transport industry, local authorities and disabled people.

But it also calls for the government to set stricter standards, provide greater clarity around existing legislation, and increase funding.

And – among other recommendations – it says local authorities should improve infrastructure and consultation with disabled people, while bus operators should improve engagement and collaboration with disabled bus passengers and staff training.

Claire Walters, chief executive of Bus Users UK, said that, despite recent advances in legislation, staff training and vehicle design, “buses are still far from fully accessible and this research highlights, in their own words, the many challenges facing disabled passengers”.

She said the report demonstrated the importance of the industry working with disabled passengers to overcome the barriers they face.

She said: “What we need now is a sustained commitment, collaboration, and funding to ensure that bus travel offers a genuinely reliable, accessible and environmentally-friendly option for everyone.”

Motability Foundation, which funded the research, described the report as “eye-opening”.

Stephen Brookes, transport policy adviser for Disability Rights UK, welcomed the report, and said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Bus Users UK and in our work we agree with and reinforce the simple but critical fact that it is vital to involve disabled people in the design and procurement stages of bus and service design to try to ensure consistent bus designs across different regions, which otherwise hinders accessibility and independence.”

*The names of passengers who took part in the research are all pseudonyms

Picture: ParalympicsGB wheelchair basketball star Laurie Williams (who did not take part in the research)

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…