Wheelchair user crawls to toilet on First Great Western train to Cornwall

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the West Briton:

Wheelchair user crawls to toilet on First Great Western train to Cornwall


Andrea Weston crawls to her seat on a train to Redruth

A woman who uses a wheelchair said she was forced to crawl to the toilet on a train from London to Cornwall.

Andrea Weston, from Helston, was told the only carriage that contained a disabled toilet was missing from her train last Wednesday.

Instead, the 42-year-old was offered a seat in first class ^ but her wheelchair would not fit through the door. There is no disabled toilet in first class.

First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) staff then asked her to catch a later train at Paddington, but she refused and instead crawled to her seat.

She said: ^I had booked the tickets a week in advance and requested assistance. I don^t see why I should have had to get off. They actually told me to get off the train. I refused. I had to crawl to my seat and to the toilet when I needed it.

^To make things worse the train staff kept talking to my friend instead of me. I even said to one of them, ^I can talk, talk to me^.

^I heard an advert on the radio yesterday for First Great Western showing off about their free wi-fi, soon to be on trains, and yet disabled passengers are treated like second-class citizens.^

Having seated herself in first class, Ms Weston was later told the platform at Redruth was too short ^ meaning she could not get her wheelchair off the carriage. Able-bodied passengers are asked to make their way down the train to standard class to disembark.

^When they told me that, it was the last straw. I just couldn^t speak to the train manager, I was so angry,^ she added.

She admitted FGW then paid for a taxi to take her home from Truro.

A spokesman for FGW said: ^We are sorry Andrea was unable to be provided with wheelchair accessibility on this service. As soon as we knew that there was a fault, attempts were made to contact the customer and offer them an alternative.

^All of our high-speed services are fitted with an accessible toilet, however, unfortunately there is not an additional facility in the first-class accommodation. This will change when we get our new Intercity Express fleet in 2017.

^We will be in touch with Andrea as soon as we ascertained the full circumstances of her journey.^

[grahame]

Oh dear ... there have been similar stories in the past, but they are mercifully very rare.  Important issues arise. But the story in the West Briton doesn't (and cannot) provide me enough fact and background to give a qualitative / assured comment. Sympathy for Ms Weston who found her journey disrupted and who wasn't happy with the service given. Also for the staff who attempted to help and advise, but found the passenger deciding against that advise then protesting the resulting extra problems to the media.

[LiskeardRich]

Seems fgw did offer as much as possible to the customer, as soon as they became aware of the fault meaning the coach wasn't present.

They offered her alternative services, which would have  been 1 hour either side of her service. Had they not removed the faulty carriage, the alternative would have been the service becoming a non runner.she would then have had no option but an alternative service,
They provided her a taxi home to helston from Truro- had she been able to get off at Redruth she wouldn't have got this, and i assume she would have needed to then get herself home from there. A taxi from Truro to helston is in the region of ^60-70 last time I took one a couple of years back.
They gave her a free first class upgrade.
I cant see what more fgw can be expected to have done?

Knowing fgw I expect some form of rail travel vouchers were issued as well.

[tom m]

I have seen a couple of sets running without coach c,  is this associaed  with any specific maintenance? Of all the coaches to remove this must be one of the worst ones to do in a set.

[Rhydgaled]

I thought there were two disabled-access carriages on IC125s, one first class and one standard. Assuming the set had been reduced to 2+7, with the removal of the TS(D), was the FO(D) substituted for a standard FO, or am I mistaken in thinking there was a FO(D)?

[Hafren]

Hardly an ideal situation, but the question I'd like to ask 'angry' customers in this sort of incident is 'What would you have done differently?' Short of going back in time and changing the entire setup, of course!

[bobm]

I thought there were two disabled-access carriages on IC125s, one first class and one standard. Assuming the set had been reduced to 2+7, with the removal of the TS(D), was the FO(D) substituted for a standard FO, or am I mistaken in thinking there was a FO(D)?

First class Coach G does have a disabled space but no accessible toilet.  I suspect even on an empty train it might not be possible to get from G to the toilet in C in a wheelchair as it probably would not fit past the buffet counter in F.

Reading through the article it does seem FGW^▸ (First Great Western) were in a bit of a no-win situation.  There may well have been other correctly formed sets at Paddington at the time - but with end of day maintainance requirements and fuel loads it is not always possible to swap them about at short notice particularly for a West of England service when the set is less likely to get back to Paddington the same day.

[The Tall Controller]

My sister is in a wheelchair and we always travel in the standard class coach. The option of being 'upgraded' to first class is more like a downgrade and its the little thingsy that make it so. In coach C there is an accessible toilet, full sized table, plug sockets, wide entrance and ample space. Coach G has none of these.

I agree that staff did all they could to give the lady an alternative and in my opinion she made a conscious decision to travel on that train in full knowledge of the reduced facilities. Yes it's unfortunate but the company would have given her a full refund had she travelled an hour later.

As an add on, when First Class gets changed around soon, the disabled first class coach will be in coach L at the back of the train. This will probably result in more platforms being too short to accommodate the coach.