Four in five blind and partially sighted people in the UK have struggled to cross the gap between trains and station platforms, according to a survey, with some falling and injuring themselves.
Many blind and partially sighted people avoid taking train journeys owing to anxieties around whether they will be properly supported after having had inconsistent experiences, according to research from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).
It found that more than one-third (37%) of blind and partially sighted people felt unable to take all the train journeys they wanted and needed. The gap between the platform and trains was a “significant source of fear”, with some people being struck by a train or coming into contact with an electric rail, or trapped in train doors and dragged as the train departed, the RNIB found.
This is partly because tactile wayfinding, which uses raised bumps and colours to help blind and visually impaired people navigate, is less common in British train stations than in many comparable countries such as European nations and Japan, with just one-fifth of blind and visually impaired people surveyed by the RNIB saying they had encountered it at a station.
The report also highlighted inconsistent experiences with passenger assistance, with two-thirds of the 1,200 survey participants regularly left stranded at railway stations when they booked passenger assistance, three-quarters unable to rely on rail staff for help and information, and two-thirds having not been alerted if a train destination changed while onboard.
One respondent said they found train travel “too overwhelming to even dare try and use a train alone”, while another said: “Unstaffed stations are a nightmare for the blind.”
Erik Matthies, the RNIB’s policy lead for travel and transport, who has sight loss, said the RNIB would like the government to use the new railways bill, which will pave the way for Great British Railways, to “make sure accessibility is embedded” from the start.
“Blind and partially sighted people have to contend with challenging ticket-buying methods, inaccessible stations, platforms and onboard facilities like toilets, and inconsistent gaps between the train and platform edges, which contribute to anxious, potentially unsafe journeys,” he said.
Paul Goddard, from East Sussex, who was registered blind in 2008 and travels regularly to London Bridge, said: “Every time I book assistance through the passenger assistance app when I’m travelling to London Bridge, I’m very anxious because I know the assistance is going to fail. No one meets me. You speak to the gate line staff who are often completely disinterested.
“Then it’s very difficult to claim back the money you’ve lost on those tickets and you can be left completely out of pocket. It’s just completely unacceptable.”
The research found that rail companies often failed to provide information for blind and partially sighted passengers in formats they could understand. It further highlighted the impact of staffing cuts to ticket offices, with nearly half of respondents (42%) preferring to buy train tickets from a person at ticket offices.
Khadija Raza, a blind disability campaigner, said that in the seven years she had been using trains without friends and family she had had “a very inconsistent experience”.
Her previous local station was unmanned and although she booked passenger assistance every time, “nobody ever met me at the platform,” she said, “so a journey that should have taken me two and a half hours ultimately took about four, missing connection after connection.”
She has since moved station and now relies on ticket office staff to assist her, even though it is not their job and it means she cannot travel after 5.30pm or on Sundays as they are not working then.
“I always plan in a lot of ‘panic if things go wrong’ time and I always try to be as prepared as possible. I get to the train station at least 20 minutes before the train – and yet still I have issues,” she said.
“Even when my train experiences are positive, I’m still exhausted after them, because I constantly think about ‘what if this goes wrong, what will happen to me’.”
She contrasted her struggles on railways with more positive experiences on the London Underground network, which she said was “very efficient”. She suspected this may be the benefit of having a single operator, compared with separate train and railway station operators where there is often disagreement as to whose responsibility passenger assistance is.
She would like to see all staff given disability awareness training, improved station accessibility and more informative audio announcements on train journeys. “When something goes wrong, we’re usually the last people to know, and we’re the ones who need to know,” she said.
The Department for Transport said: “Everyone should be able to travel safely and with dignity, which is why we are working with the rail industry to strengthen passenger assistance, investing almost £280m in step-free access and lifts.”
