Those reading this may remember that last Thursday evening, the 29th of May 2025 I was forced to board a train at New Street station in Birmingham using the wrong ramp for the type of train that I would be on.
In the last few minutes I was on ITV News Central’s Sunday, the 1st of June programme talking about what this scary experience was like and how it made me feel, knowing that there was some potential for an accident if the ramp had moved whilst I was using it.
It was only down to the fact that my wheelchair weighs around 90kgs that the ramp didnt move whilst I was on it and the fact that the customer assistant from Network Rail who was assisting me had his foot at the bottom of the ramp to hold it in place.
Network Rail responded to a request for comment from ITV News Central by saying that ” our teams are trained on which ramps to use and when”.
They went onto add that “ in light of this incident, we will refresh everyone’s awareness to help avoid similar instances in future”
I am pleased that the organisation has both apologised and acknowledged that they used the wrong ramp, people maybe wondering why I waited until after the incident to call it out, this was because I didnt want to be stopped from travelling because I had challenged what they were doing.
This type of incident is becoming more and more common across the rail network regardless of where you live in the country and it is time that this changes, we as a community have as much of a right to travel by rail as our able-bodied counterparts.
If you have a disability or mobility issue and face problems like the one that I have described today, please, please, please call it out either at the time or after it has happened so that Network Rail and the rail operators can learn from these types of experiences.
” I really hope that Network Rail’s response is not just words and they actually deliver on what they have said”
If you travel by rail on a regular basis and require some assistance to either board or disembark services, your assisted travel can be booked up to 2 hours before departure in 1 of 3 ways.
By Phone: 0800 024 8998 or by using Next Generation Text – 18001 0800 024 8998.
Online: https://booking.passengerassistance.com.
By using the App: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/passenger-assistance/id1542190496.
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Cam
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