As someone who lives with a disability and uses a wheelchair to navigate daily live all I want is to “Turn up and go” when travelling by rail, however I am made to feel that this isn’t possible by station staff and rail operators.
The disabled community have a legal right to just “Turn up and go” when travelling by rail to keep a sense of independence. Station staff and rail operators don’t like us doing this because it means that they aren’t aware of our journey’s.
This option of rail travel for our community is not currently promoted as an option and attitudes towards this from those who work in the industry need to change now and not in 5 or 10 years time.
The officials that I met with in August 2025 from the Department for Transport and Rail Delivery Group agree that this has to change as soon as possible.”My message to station staff and the operators is a clear one and is this, as a disabled rail passenger I have a legal right to simply just, turn up and go”.
” Please stop making me feel like I have book my assisted travel or I won’t be able to travel, this isn’t fair and shouldn’t be allowed to happen, it has to stop today”.
I urge our community to just “turn up and go” when travelling by rail especially on occasions where you wake up and decide to jump on a train and head away for the day with friends or family.
If you would like to have the certainty of knowing that you will be assisted on to trains by either station staff or train crew at unstaffed stations, 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.
If you enjoy reading my posts every week once they have been published then why not subscribe (if you haven’t already) and receive future ones direct to your inbox within just a few short minutes of publication.
Subscribe: https://just-being-cp.co.uk/
A thank you must go to you, my loyal readers and social media followers who continually take the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest posts each week within minutes of publication in some cases. it as always doesn’t go unnoticed and is of course very much appreciated.
Cam
Leave a Reply