Despite a decade of improvement, scooter and wheelchair users still face bureaucratic hurdles and a lack of empathy from staff
Sun 9 Feb 2020 03.00 EST
Logan Lewis had spent months building up to his first independent trip into town. The 13-year-old has a rare form of dwarfism which makes walking difficult and he relies on a customised mobility scooter. On the big day he and his friends awaited the early bus to take them from their remote Welsh village to Aberystwyth. Logan never got to town.
“The bus driver refused to let him travel because he didn’t want the scooter on his bus,” said his mother, Perly Freeman. “The scooter is smaller than the average pram and while Logan was explaining that he is not confined to it and could park it in the wheelchair bay, the driver closed the doors in his face and drove off.”
Freeman discovered that the route operator, First Bus, has signed up to a voluntary code which requires mobility scooter users to undergo a training session to obtain a permit before they can board a bus. The website directs them to write to the company and an automated email response promises a reply within a fortnight. Four weeks later, Freeman had heard nothing.
“Logan’s self-confidence that we have worked so hard to build up was massively knocked by the humiliation,” she said. “He was full of self-loathing. He had a tracheostomy for his first eight years and needed 24-hour care and has only recently been able to find independence, so this trip was a massive thing for him.”
Logan’s ordeal exposes the hurdles still faced by those with mobility aids when accessing public transport. Regulation and corporate policy changes have led to significant improvements in facilities and infrastructure over the last 10 years, but fragmented provision, poor training and unreformed attitudes can still leave passengers stranded.
According to disability equality charity Scope, Logan’s experience is dishearteningly common in the transport sector and the charity is campaigning for a passenger charter to clarify the rights of disabled passengers. “We know many disabled people continue to face barriers, outdated attitudes and difficulty getting hold of reliable information when they want to travel,” said James Taylor, Scope’s head of policy and campaigns. “Our research has found one in three disabled people have been stopped from visiting certain places because of problems with public transport such as damage to mobility aids on planes, assistance failures on trains and unclear rules on whether wheelchairs users have priority over wheelchair spaces on buses.”
Ironically, Logan fell victim to a rule devised to prevent him being left stranded. The Mobility Scooter Code of Conduct was drawn up in 2011 to standardise the acceptance of scooters on buses. Since 2017 all buses have to be accessible under the Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations, but there is no legal requirement for them to carry mobility scooters. This has left users unable to predict whether a driver will allow them to board.
The code of conduct and a similar scheme operated by Transport for London allow for a permit guaranteeing access once the scooter has been deemed suitable and the owner shown how to board, park and disembark safely. Twenty-two bus operators have now signed up.
The trouble is that scooter users may only discover the requirement once they have been denied boarding, then face a potential delay of weeks while they wait for a suitable training date and for the subsequent permit to be posted. Even Scope was unaware of the requirements until the Observer got in touch. “This family’s experience is a clear demonstration that there is too much confusion around codes, regulations and how they are implemented,” Taylor said.
First Bus said drivers should allow scooters of suitable size and weight to board without a permit if there was room and explain the requirement for future journeys.
The firm reacted swiftly when the Observer intervened. It allocated a dedicated bus and driver to assess Logan and his scooter, issued a permit on the spot and drove him home. “Although this was very much an isolated incident, we’ve launched an investigation to identify any internal opportunities to improve our processes. We have reminded drivers of the correct procedures to follow,” it said.
Logan would face a similar lottery on the rail network. From this year all trains must be accessible to wheelchairs, but not mobility scooters. While rail operators accept smaller models, some companies insist on permits, some require them to be folded down and stowed away and the Heathrow Express bans them altogether.
Wheelchair users can travel on the airport shuttle, but challenges may await them when they arrive at the terminal. The airport was criticised by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority in 2017 for failing to treat disabled passengers with “dignity and respect”. Last year it improved its official rating to “good” but it is still getting plenty of one-star reviews on the consumer website Trustpilot.
Mark and Jane Dukes’s (*) honeymoon began and ended in humiliation after a series of failures by airport staff. The newlyweds, both of whom rely on wheelchairs, had booked special assistance for their flight from Edinburgh to Vancouver via Heathrow. “On arrival at Heathrow we witnessed a heated argument between four members of staff about who was responsible for us. We had to beg them to take us to our terminal,” said Jane. “The two who were delegated continued to argue and when my husband asked them to stop they switched to a different language and ignored us. They nearly tipped both of us out of our chairs as they took us off the transfer bus, then only one assistant was sent to take us to the plane, so we nearly missed the flight.”
On the Dukes’s return from Vancouver the couple had to wait on board for an hour before Jane’s wheelchair was found. Staff struggled to disembark them as they’d been seated on a deck that did not accommodate the airline’s wheeled aisle chair. They were abandoned in the terminal and by the time they found staff to convey them to their gate their connecting flight had departed. They had to wait five hours for another flight that could accommodate their wheelchairs. “We put a lot of work into the logistics of our trip given it was a special occasion and paid extra to travel business class, but we felt like baggage,” said Jane.
Heathrow apologised for the “unacceptable” experience, but it has refused to offer compensation. “We strive to accommodate the needs of all of our passengers, whilst treating them with courtesy and respect,” it said. “Our team has been in touch with the passengers to look into the circumstances of these journeys and necessary corrective action has been taken internally to address the issues raised.”
Disabled passengers generally face a far friendlier landscape than 10 years ago and the government’s Inclusive Transport Strategy wants to see equal access across the network by 2030 with overhauled infrastructure, information and staff training. Heathrow is this year re-tendering its subcontracted assistance service and investing £30m in new facilities and training. Ironically, First Bus has been a leading advocate for disability access with workshops, school visits and travel-assistance cards specifying what help the holder requires. However, the experience of the Dukes and Logan show that a lack of empathy can be more of a barrier than dated rolling stock.
“The worst experiences are caused by staff who don’t know what to do, or make assumptions about disabled people and their abilities, or who simply don’t think it’s their job to help customers,” says Keith Richards, chair of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee.
* Names have been changed
