Following what I experienced at Witton railway station after England’s FIFA World Cup qualifier against Andorra at Villa Park in Birmingham last September as a wheelchair user I won’t travel by rail to an international football match in the region until I have assurances that things have improved.
Just under a year on from the incident, where a fellow supporter also waiting for a train home from the station nearly fell onto me after jumping overt a mental railing that I was sat next to in a queue just to reunite with his friends, I do not want to experience all that again.
Earlier that day on arrival at Witton I was locked onto the train I was on for several minutes until the senior conductor on board was able to unlock the doors at the front of the train.
In the week which followed the match at Villa Park, I met with officials from the operator to discuss my experience and unfortunately did not feel listened to because I was only person who had raised concerns as a wheelchair user about my experience.
Wheelchair users queueing up the entrance ramps at the station was another major concern that I raised but again I didn’t feel listened to about that issue either, which was incredibly upsetting.
However since that day I have spoken to Aston Villa supporters at the station who are wheelchair users and were also at the station on the day of the England match and not to my surprise they also raised concerns to me about what they experienced/witnessed.
I have a clear but simple message for the operator ahead of Villa Park and Birmingham hosting matches during the 2028 European Football Championships which is this, please work with us (disabled rail passengers) in the lead up to Villa Park hosting tournament matches so that our experience after the England vs Andorra match is not repeated at the station again.
This is for sure an incident that will never forget as long as I am using the railways to travel around the region to things like football matches and other major events.
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It is only right that I take this opportunity to thank the accessibility team at WMR who have gone above and beyond in recent weeks, months and years to ensure that I am able to board there services with ease across the network they manage, especially at stations with accessible waiting spaces on the platforms.
Your support around this issue does not go unnoticed and is as always of course very much appreciated and always will be.
Finally, thank you to each and everyone for you my regular loyal readers and social media followers who continually take the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest posts, as always it does not go unnoticed and is very much appreciated.
Cam
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