Author: Doug Paulley

Wheelchair user and residential care user, sometimes thorn in the side of authorities.

Arriva Rail North’s antipathy to slopes

I traveled to Salford today, after my interesting time booking my trip to visit my Dad. I fully expected a lot to go wrong. Sadly, I was right. The TransPennine from Leeds to Manchester was OK, except that the hand-dryer in the toilet was non-functional. One of the two wheelchair spaces was reserved for me;…

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Law Requiring Accessibility of Taxis

Back in 1995, the Government put taxi accessibility requirements into the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), but didn’t commence the relevant sections. They said these are to be commenced “from days to be determined“. The provisions hadn’t been commenced 15 years later when the Equality Act replaced the DDA. And they still hadn’t been commenced in…

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Reservation status of a train wheelchair space is an Official Secret

I want to visit my Dad at the People’s History Museum next Monday, so I phoned Transpennine Express’ assisted travel line to book tickets, the wheelchair space and assistance with ramps. The call lasted two hours. There are no advance tickets available. This immediately rang alarm bells: it is theoretically possible that all advance purchase…

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