Help and Advice

Your Rights

The past 10 years has seen a dramatic improvement in the accessibility of public transport services for disabled people. New accessible vehicles are being introduced rapidly, the infrastructure (everything from railway stations to internet information) is slowly improving, and since December 2006 disabled people have new rights to fair treatment when using transport services under the Disability Discrimination Act. Here you will find help and advice about what service you should expect, and what to do if you think that standard of service has not been satisfactory.

General Help

Train Help

Bus Help

What to do if you think you have been discriminated against

If you read the advice in this section and believe that a transport provider has discriminated against you by refusing a service or by failing to make a reasonable adjustment, then you may have grounds for a complaint. You should firstly complain to the bus or train company responsible. See the Transport Operators and transport links section for details of these.

Your letter should include as much information as possible, particularly the date, time and place (and the registration number of the bus would be particularly helpful) so that the company can identify the staff involved.

Who can help me with my complaint?

If you are unhappy with the response you get you can seek further advice about pursuing your complaint by contacting the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).

The DRC is a public body set up with one goal in mind: ‘A society where all disabled people can participate fully as equal citizens.’

The DRC run a helpline service which offers advice and support for disabled people who make a complaint and do not receive a satisfactory response. You can contact the DRC helpline in a number of ways:

  • an enquiry form on their website
  • by telephone 08457 622 633
  • by textphone 08457 622 644
  • by fax: 08457 778 878
  • by post: DRC Helpline, FREEPOST, MID02164, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 9BR
  • by HelpLive, a new secure online one-to-one advice service (see the DRC website for more information)

IMPORTANT! Where the DRC can’t help you

It’s important to remember that many of the complaints which disabled people have about public transport aren’t matters for the DDA. Often indeed these are the same complaints as other travellers; buses and trains being delayed, too infrequent and overcrowded. These aren’t issues of disability discrimination as they affect all travellers. The DRC can’t help with these problems, which are the reasons why so many people whether disabled or non-disabled choose to travel by car rather than public transport.

The Help and Advice guide

This guide provides information about what disabled people can expect when using public transport services, and what they need to do to get the best quality service. This guide focuses on the most common forms of public transport; buses, trains and coaches.

The guide is divided into 3 sections; a short summary of what your rights are under the Disability Discrimination Act (the DDA), an introduction to some of the features which should be common to all public transport services, and then specific advice on the separate modes of transport.

Generally we try to follow the pattern of a journey:

  • Finding out about a transport service
  • Buying a ticket
  • What to expect at the station or start of the journey
  • What the vehicle should be like
  • Help to get on and off a vehicle
  • What help might be available while you are travelling on the journey

Your rights under the Disability Discrimination Act

The DDA says that disabled people should not be discriminated against by a service provider, including transport companies, in the way they provide their services. Transport companies should not refuse to serve someone or offer them a worse service just because they have a disability.

Transport companies should also make sure that disabled people can use their services fairly. If a disabled person is having difficulty accessing a service, the transport company should consider making a “reasonable adjustment” so that the disabled person is able to use the service more fairly or easily.

These “reasonable adjustments,” which could also be thought of as “positive assistance,” can mean a transport company changing something in the way they operate the service (“their policies, practices or procedures”), or it could mean providing special help (“an auxiliary aid or service”). It does not mean altering the vehicle.

Service providers are only expected to make “reasonable” adjustments, and what is reasonable will depend on the size, and resources of the service provider or the effectiveness of the adjustment. Transport companies have to anticipate that disabled people will want to use their services and that they will need to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

Finding out about transport services

When deciding whether it is possible to make a journey by public transport a disabled person might consult a range of sources:

  • information produced by transport providers (including time tables and route maps)
  • transport websites
  • telephone helplines

All of these should be making adjustments to ensure that they can be used by disabled people. These include:

  • If a person with a visual impairment is unable to read the standard print timetable, the train or bus company should provide the timetable in large print, on computer disc or on tape.
  • Helplines should by able to receive calls by Typetalk, or offer a Minicom line for people who are deaf.
  • A bus company could provide timetables, which include visual representation of times with clock faces, for people with learning difficulties. These timetables could just be for the routes which the person with a learning disability wants to use.
  • A website should be compatible with screen-reading software for people with visual impairments.

Buying a Ticket

Once a disabled person has decided on their journey it should be as easy for them to buy a ticket. However if they face difficulties the sort of adjustments which can be made include:

  • A station ticket office could provide a hearing loop, to allow people who use hearing aids to hear what the customer service staff are saying. This should be clearly marked so that the disabled person knows to switch the ‘T Switch’ on their hearing aid.
  • The entrance to a ticket office could be ramped for wheelchair users.
  • Ticket machines should have a set of low level buttons for wheelchair users
  • If a disabled person is unable to buy a ticket before boarding a vehicle because of their disability (eg the ticket machine cannot be used by someone who is blind) they should not be charged a penalty fare for travelling without a ticket. They should also be able to pay a fare on board the vehicle which takes account of any fare concession to which they are entitled

At the Station or Bus Stop

Britain’s transport infrastructure was not designed with disabled people in mind, in particular Victorian railway stations.

Investment in improvements means that many intercity mainline railway stations are now much more accessible with, ramps or lifts to all platforms, help points at larger stations, and audible and visual announcement systems telling passengers when their train is due.

On major bus routes local councils are raising the kerbs (these are called “kassel kerbs”) so that when the ramp is deployed it will be level with the floor of the bus to make it easier for people to push wheelchairs onto the bus.

Despite these improvements many railway stations and bus stops will present barriers to many disabled people for some years to come. The sort of adjustments which can be made include:

  • Providing a staff member to meet a disabled person at the railway station to help guide them to the platform and to board the train.
  • Providing visual (and sometimes) audible announcements at some bus stops to let passengers know when their bus is due.
  • Train companies providing information about the accessibility of stations though helplines and websites.

What the vehicle should be like

Regulations introduced under the Disability Discrimination Act mean that all new buses, coaches and trains must be designed to be accessible to the vast majority of disabled people. Already nearly half of all buses comply with these regulations, and 4 out of 10 trains. Only with coaches, where the regulations only came into effect at the beginning of 2005, is significant progress still to be made. The sort of features you should expect on a DDA complaint vehicle include:

  • A space for a wheelchair
  • Non-slip flooring
  • Good colour contrast to find doors on trains and grab rails on buses
  • Wide doors and space to manoeuvre a wheelchair
  • On trains only – audible and visual announcement systems
  • On trains which have a toilet at least one should be accessible to disabled people
  • On buses only – an electric or manual ramp for wheelchair users to board the vehicle

Trains which are compliant will have clearly marked doors with good colour contrast. Buses which are compliant will have a ‘W registration number’ or later.

A number of vehicles produced prior to the introduction already include features to make them accessible to disabled people. For example, buses may be low floor with ‘kneeling suspension’ even if they don’t have a wheelchair ramp. Many trains will have space for a wheelchair - the days of travelling in the guards van are over.

Wheelchairs and Scooters on buses and trains

On buses and trains which comply with the regulations there will be at least one space to accommodate a wheelchair. There are more on longer inter-city trains. On buses in particular it is vital that wheelchair users who are staying in their chair travel in the space. It is designed to ensure that in the event of a sudden stop they will be safe, and so will other passengers. This means that if there is already a wheelchair user in the space you will not be allowed to board unless you can transfer from your chair to a normal seat and you chair can be safely stowed. If the space is occupied by other passengers or their luggage, staff should ask them to clear the space.

The regulations governing the design of accessible vehicles are based on the measurements for a ‘reference wheelchair’. This should accommodate the vast majority of manual and electric wheelchairs in use in Great Britain. You can check if you wheelchair will fit by getting the publication ‘Wheels within Wheels’ from Ricability.

The position with regard to scooters however is not as clear. The majority of scooters are primarily designed for outdoor use by people who can walk short distances. They tend to be larger, and less manoeuvrable than wheelchairs, so that even if they will fit into the wheelchair space they may not be able to manoeuvre into it. If you can’t get it into the space you will not be able to take your scooter onto the bus or train unless you can take it apart and it can be carried as luggage. If you use a scooter you are strongly advised to talk to the transport company you want to use to find out if you can travel with your scooter.

Help to get on or off the vehicle

You should expect help to get on and off the vehicle. However, many small railway stations are not staffed and if you need assistance you will need to book it in advance.

The sort of help you should expect includes:

  • Providing a staff member to meet a disabled person at the railway station to help guide them to the platform and to board the train, including putting a wheelchair ramp in place if required. The process should be repeated at the end of the journey.
  • Bus drivers should lower the ramp. If it is a manual rather than electronic ramp they should get out of their cab to lower it unless they are in an unsafe area.
  • Drivers should shout out the number of their bus if they see someone is obviously visually impaired so that the person knows which bus to get on.
  • Bus drivers should, if requested, tell a disabled passenger when they arrive at their stop, eg if they are blind and cannot tell where they are.

Services on board

If services are provided on board a vehicle they should be available to disabled passengers. To do this may involve for example;

  • On train staff offering to fetch refreshments from the buffet for a passenger who is unable to walk there and back safely.

Travelling on a Train

Travelling on Britain’s railway system is increasingly possible for disabled people, and many are finding it more convenient than using the crowded roads.

Booking Assistance

It is widely believed that disabled people have to book 24 hours ahead to travel on the railway. This is untrue. It only applies to disabled people who need assistance, and even then at larger stations a ‘turn up and go’ service is increasingly possible, particularly for regular travellers.

The Assisted Passenger Reporting System (APRS) has been set up to allow passengers to book assistance when travelling by train (it is the railway industry’s main way of providing “reasonable adjustments” for disabled passengers). You need to contact the train company you will be starting your journey with. Assistance should be booked 24 hours in advance. This is particularly important for passengers who travelling from smaller, quieter stations.

At large fully staffed mainline stations it is possible even for wheelchair users to just turn up and ask staff to assist them to board. To do this you usually need to turn up at least 15 minutes before the train is due in order to find a member of staff free to help you.

However, staff will always give priority to other passengers who have booked assistance so you may have to be prepared to wait for the next train. It’s important too if you choose to ‘turn up and go’ to consider the situation at the end of your journey if you need assistance to get off the train – such as sufficient staff to help you.

Deciding whether to book assistance is about assessing the degree of risk you are prepared to take. The DRC strongly recommends that disabled passengers who need help book assistance until they are familiar with the journey and confident that they can cope even if it doesn’t go to plan.

What assistance is provided?

The APRS is a comprehensive service which can include everything from meeting you from your taxi at the station and escorting you to the train, through to taking you to the taxi rank at the end of your journey.

It can include guiding blind and partially sighted passengers, and helping people with learning disabilities, to find their seats. For some people who can walk the most important thing is help with carrying heavy luggage. If you have been helped to a seat you should try not to move to another as the staff coming to help you off at the other end should look for you in the seat you sat in when you boarded.

What happens if things go wrong?

If you’ve booked assistance the train companies should ensure that you get the help you need, including if the train is delayed and you miss a connection. Occasionally, if you are travelling in the evening and staff have ended their shifts the train company may decide that the best thing to do is put you in a taxi to your destination station.

Despite everything said above there are times when the APRS system fails altogether. If this happens you should complain.

What if your local station isn’t accessible to you?

Most train companies have a duty to get you from your local station to one which is accessible to you. Some train companies will do so by taxi, others will first suggest that you might use another station which is roughly the same distance away (if there is one).

If one platform is accessible they may suggest you travel in the opposite direction to that which you wish to go until you reach the next station which is fully accessible to you, when you can cross over.

Travelling on a Bus

Travelling by bus can be less predictable than travelling by train, and for some disabled people it simply isn’t possible to get to the bus stop in the first place. Nevertheless as accessible buses become more common it is an option for growing numbers of disabled people.

Boarding the bus

Anyone can ask the bus driver to lower the suspension so that the step up is smaller. If you are unsteady on your feet you might also ask the driver to give you time to get to your seat before they start off.

Getting a seat

There should be reserved seating for disabled passengers near the entrance to the bus. If it is being used by someone who is not disabled the driver should ask them to get up to let you sit down.

Knowing when to get off

For many people who are blind, or have a learning disability it is difficult to know when you have reached your stop. You should ask the driver to tell you when you get on the bus and they should provide you with this help. Although you should not distract them with repeated reminders of your request, you should be able to check with the driver when the bus is stopped.

Lowering the Ramp

There are limited circumstances when a driver can refuse to leave their cab to lower the ramp. However the only excuse for failing to lower an electric ramp is if it is broken. If you see a bus being regularly used with a ramp which is out of order you should complain to the bus company as it is likely that they are breaching the DDA.

If the ramp is broken the bus driver should try to tell you when the next accessible bus is due. If they have a radio they should contact their control to try to get accurate information for you.

There may be occasions where a ramp is working but the bus driver is unable to deploy it safely. This may occur when another vehicle is parked in a bus bay or the bus stop has no kerb. The bus company is not responsible for these sorts of problems. You should complain to the local Council who are responsible for the pavements and policing parking.

Using the wheelchair space

As already explained above it is vital that wheelchair users travel in the wheelchair space. However many other passengers use the space for pushchairs, prams and luggage, or simply to stand in if the bus is crowded. If the space is full the driver should ask passengers to clear it, unless the occupant is another wheelchair user, or the bus is so full that it is impossible for the wheelchair user to get on.