DISABLED people in Scotland are missing out on a social life because of huge barriers to rail travel, says a new campaign group.
Younger members of the charity Enable Scotland are asking companies to rethink current policies that demand anyone who uses a wheelchair must book well in advance of travel.
Tomorrow they will launch the HUBS (Help Us Be Spontaneous) campaign at the Scottish Parliament, which is due to debate the Government's new learning disability strategy.
The campaign aims to change the rules requiring disabled people who need assistance to pre-book, in some cases up to 24 hours in advance of travel, which campaigners say removes the ability for them to be spontaneous, to meet friends on the same day, or travel where they want to, when they want.
The campaigners also want to see a change in the attitudes of staff to people who require assistance on board trains and at railway stations, which they say are often poor.
Supported by Enable Scotland, and Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, the young people intend to visit the Cross Party Group on Learning Disability at Holyrood to gain the support of MSPs.
Kenneth McGowan, 18, from Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, is a wheelchair user who says he faces continual problems when travelling independently to college.
He said problems included not having ramps available, late changes to travel arrangements and unfriendly attitudes from staff.
"Recently, I booked my journey in advance but got a phone call to say the train I had planned to get on would not have a ticket inspector on board and I would need to get the later train," he said.
"When I arrived I was told I would be getting a taxi. No-one called to let me know the plans had changed, which would have saved me waiting for nearly an hour.
"Some staff are really nice and helpful, but many are not. One of our other wheelchair users was travelling home from Glasgow Queen Street and he was told, 'You have to give 10 minutes' notice for booking the ramp.' The worker was not very nice and nearly made him miss his train home."
Jan Savage, head of campaigns and policy at Enable Scotland, said: "In the last month alone we have seen evidence of young people been sworn at by transport staff, told they are an inconvenience and left stranded at stations.
"Our members tell us about being embarrassed, angry, frightened, and feeling vulnerable in these situations. This is unacceptable. It is time to increase our efforts to support disabled travellers live spontaneously.
"Often, even when journeys are booked well in advance, they find these have been changed by the transport provider; they have been forgotten; or that the attitudes of staff are not helpful. Wouldn't it be great if disabled passengers could simply turn up and travel with confidence?"
Ms Baillie, who is convener of the Scottish Parliament group on learning disability, said: "Small changes in attitudes and some common sense would go a long way to improve the experience, and confidence, of disabled people.
"I hope lots of people sign their petition, and I will be encouraging Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown to meet the young people. "
A ScotRail spokeswoman said: "We always try to assist anyone who turns up without booking.
"We provide more than 80,000 pre-booked assisted journeys for disabled customers a year, and an estimated 20,000 more where no advance booking has been made.
"We regularly hold forums with other accessibility groups to discuss these issues and would be happy to meet HUBS."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article