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The rail industry has no awareness of just how badly it is failing disabled passengers every day, a leading access consultant has told MPs. Christiane Link, a consultant and adviser on accessibility to the aviation and transport industry for more than […]
Disabled campaigners have exposed the widespread – and unpunished – discrimination that passengers face across the rail, bus and taxi sectors, in written evidence to an MPs’ inquiry. Many of the concerns were focused on the rail sector, with evidence highlighting […]
The government’s accessible transport advisers have been told by a regulator that they have been behaving unlawfully for years by failing to publish controversial reports, minutes of key meetings and letters they have exchanged with ministers. Campaigners believe the Department for […]
The government’s plans for the railways over the next three decades display a “poverty of ambition” on accessibility, its own advisers on accessible transport have told ministers. They told the Department for Transport that they were “extremely disappointed” that plans for […]
The new chair of the body that advises the government on accessible transport has questioned whether it is right to release research that exposes the discrimination faced by disabled passengers. There were hopes that the appointment of wheelchair-user Matthew Campbell-Hill would lead […]
The organisation that runs most of Britain’s railway infrastructure is installing more inaccessible footbridges across the country, in apparent breach of its duties under the Equality Act. Earlier this month, Network Rail – whose directors report to transport secretary Mark Harper […]
Campaigners have questioned why Conservative ministers and MPs rejected a proposal that would have forced the government to take “reasonable steps” towards making all rail stations in England accessible to disabled people. The proposed amendment to the government’s levelling-up and regeneration […]
Campaigners have called on the equality watchdog to take “urgent action” to prevent an “escalating human rights crisis” for disabled passengers, caused by staffing issues on Britain’s rail system. They say reports that the government plans mass ticket office closures mean […]
Staffing levels on a section of the rail network are “completely inadequate to deliver an accessible railway”, according to a report by the government’s own accessible transport advisers. The Rail Workforce Reform report by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) […]
The Department for Transport (DfT) has said it is “unfair” to suggest that the government’s accessible transport strategy is failing, despite three high-profile incidents involving disabled air and rail passengers last week. In one incident, a disabled passenger in his 80s […]