Accessibility - customers need more support

Scheduled coach journeys should be accessible to all. That’s what the law states. If anyone has bought a ticket to get from A to B on a scheduled service, they have a right to get that service. The coach industry contributes £14 billion to the UK economy. If we as an industry answer the accessibility riddle we can contribute even more, but how?

For coaches wheelchair accessibility is usually by means of an external lift which raises the passenger in their chair to the floor height of the coach. A simple cost-effective solution, so why is it that there is very little infrastructure which supports this type of access?

How operators make coaches accessible

The accessibility lifts extend for up to 2m from the side of the vehicle and requires the length of the lift plus around 1.5m of space on the footway to be deployed. This means they require at least 3m and in many cases nearer to 4m of level space.

They can be mounted on the front entrance of the coach, or at just about any point along the side of the vehicle.

So, what’s the issue?

The correct infrastructure is rarely in place to support coach mounted lifts, even when provisions have been made.

Most stops have raised kerb sections to allow easier access to low floor buses. The footway adjacent to these sections often slopes away from the kerb down to normal height which renders them of little use for deploying lifts, stranding paying customers.

Similarly, bus and coach station layouts provide their own issues. The three main designs are:

• Parallel bays - which rarely provide the space customers need
• Chevron bays - which sometimes offers the right amount of space
• And Perpendicular or “T” bays - which is often the only design to have enough space to allow a lift’s deployment

Coach parks rarely provide for accessibility on coaches, but many are fairly accommodating in adapting the facilities where it is required, most commonly by leaving an adjacent bay empty to allow lifts to be deployed.

This works, however, it brings the major safety issue of having passengers in live traffic areas. Suitable plans must be in place to ensure safety - something that isn’t always viable.

Conclusion

It’s fair to say that whilst it’s possible to make every vehicle accessible the rest of the world isn’t very accessibility friendly so ultimately not every journey is accessible.

Our Coach Member Forum believes that concentrating efforts on key points where PSVs are required to pick up and set down passengers would open greater potential for more accessible journeys without the need to make all coaches accessible.

Coach and bus parking infrastructure must provide for the accessibility needs of passengers. Existing legislation (Passenger Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000) around accessibility on buses and coaches focusses solely on the vehicle, which is the fatal flaw.

An operator’s fleet may comply fully with the legislation but is never able to carry a wheelchair passenger because there’s no requirement to provide facilities to allow them to board. If the industry is ever to offer the travel opportunities that the legislation intended, there must be change.

There are two routes to increase accessibility to coach travel, consideration of infrastructure to accommodate the current generation of accessible coaches in transport hubs and locations which attract group travellers is one way. Or a complete overhaul of how wheelchairs are accommodated on coaches. The current approach dates to the 1960s. A way to combat this challenge is for manufacturers is to come up with a system which allows wheelchairs to be boarded without the need for extensive infrastructure.

There must be change for the good of our industry and for the good of wheelchair users in the UK. In our recent Mission Driven a Blueprint for Change document we call for a reset of the regulatory framework governing disabled access to coaches. We also want the government to work with coach operators to promote industry best-practice to invest in and raise the standards of service provided to passengers with disabilities.