Why don't wheelchair users rise up?

goingnowhere wrote: »

I think you will find the entire Irish Rail fleet meets the required accessibility standards laid down and as they require 24 hours notice (4 hours in Dublin) they are significantly better than the EU regulatory requirement of 48 hours notice.

Every train with a toilet has at least 1 accessible toilet.

The one thing Irish Rail cannot cope with (and it not required to in law) is these overside mobility scooter things which cannot fit as Irish trains are just not wide enough

If you think Irish Rail is bad, try boarding a train in central Europe where there is no relationship between the platform height (assuming there is even a platform...) and doors where a lift is required.

Provision is by no means perfect but it you go back 25 years, there wasn't a single accessible train or station.

Is it not 4 hours everywhere now? I thought they changed it

People tend to forget, the disability laws were only brought in in the early 2000s during the Bertie/Tiger era


They ripped up half the rail network to install longer platforms, lifts, ramps and made sure the new trains they ordered were all disability friendly.


It reminds me of special needs assistants, people complain to my office all the time that there are not enough of them, but only a few years ago they were a totally unknown concept, and since we've gotten better at diagnosing things like autism (which is what makes the quacks think it's gotten worse via vaccines, it hasn't, we just got better at diagnosing it, thinking in the past the kid was just "bold") so there is more pressure there.


Council houses in the 80s didn't come with wardrobes...now you can demand furniture and they install everything a private landlord does.



Our expectations and standards have risen, and that's a good thing of course, but we have to be reasonable too.




What are the practical solutions?


-We can't scrap all our trains and order new ones. We will be ordering new DARTs and Commuter trains soon enough so maybe we can ask for them to have automated ramps, but that' won't fix what's already there.


-I'm not sure how practical it is to retrofit the trains, off hand it just not strike me as easily done.


-That leaves one more thing, allowing civilians to use the ramps or shortening the 24 hour period. Allowing the first is the easiest but like most other problems in transport there is another area of policy that would need to be fixed first, in this case our insane compo culture. Lets not forget a moron the type of which should have been prevented from reproducing lest her rancid genes produce another generation of knacktastics got rich , rewarded, for being a moron via public transport recently, she was quite literally rewarded for being stupid. I can imagine all kinds of insane claims coming from ramp use so we'd have to have some kind of provision saying everyone who uses one is totally, automatically, unable to sue under any circumstances whatsoever. Maybe a giant bright yellow and black sticker on it saying that as well.

Demonique wrote: »

What did said moron do?

Wouldn't surprise me if this refers to last year's tram surfer award

I speak up on my sisters behalf, although, if folk don't want to hear what you've got to say... sigh, they won't

I may just take you up on that offer. Sinn Féin are having a public meeting regarding the Western Rail Corridor in Athenry next Thursday (12th December, local community hall) and I think the disabled really need a voice in this issue.

Obviously, I'll be there, sticking my oar in :rolleyes:

road_high wrote: »

They’ve a lift at Kilkenny railway station that I don’t recall ever being used after it was installed alongside Macdonagh junction. At huge cost I’d say too. Presume they couldn’t be arsed with the extra maintenance/upkeep involved so it was easier just stick up a perma out of order sign. And the local politicians in Kilkenny being so apocalypticly useless nothing will ever be done or even questioned. How do wheelchair users manage as the pathway is extremely steep up to the shell that passes for a station ?

So the developer installed the lift and didn't commission it because the hotel wasn't built and access from it and shopping center hasn't happened. The lift is technically not intended for Irish Rail passengers to use and they have not authority over the lift and an agreement would be required. Irish Rail should not have to fund maintenance costs in future if it could potentially be available to the public. They would not be able to protect it from potential vandalism by monitoring access.

The operator of MacDonagh Junction have also passed the book on this so until there is father development such as the hotel the lift will not be used.

That isn't to say Irish Rail should push for transfer of ownership from the developer and eventually have the lift fully under there control. Right now it's not a priority for access, Carlow is only getting a lift now when they should have been in place 15 years ago.

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

So the developer installed the lift and didn't commission it because the hotel wasn't built and access from it and shopping center hasn't happened. The lift is technically not intended for Irish Rail passengers to use and they have not authority over the lift and an agreement would be required. Irish Rail should not have to fund maintenance costs in future if it could potentially be available to the public. They would not be able to protect it from potential vandalism by monitoring access.

The operator of MacDonagh Junction have also passed the book on this so until there is father development such as the hotel the lift will not be used.

That isn't to say Irish Rail should push for transfer of ownership from the developer and eventually have the lift fully under there control. Right now it's not a priority for access, Carlow is only getting a lift now when they should have been in place 15 years ago.

How do people that need access get up the hill to the station? Good ole Irish rail, hands off as ever and laissez faire- heaven forbid someone would be proactive and it down with the Shopping centre management!
We are hearing about climate change ad nauseum but here we have a large shopping centre right beside a railway station without a sensible and direct linked connection.