Written evidence submitted by Ringrose Law (ATL0008)

I write further to your call for evidence. I am an Equality & Disability Rights Lawyer and Head of the Discrimination and Equality Department at Ringrose Law. My areas of expertise include Disability Rights, Equality and Discrimination, Accessibility and Inclusion.

I have worked on a wide variety of discrimination cases including discrimination due to disability, sex, pregnancy, gender reassignment and age and have represented clients to bring about positive change and secure compensation payments. You may be aware of a case against Southern Rail that was publicised where I secured £17,000 in compensation for a client who was left stranded on trains and station platforms more than thirty times after workers failed to provide wheelchair assistance. Despite the assurances given by the railway, the Claimant continues to face the same barriers and access fails on a regular basis.

In addition to this case, I currently have around 10-15 additional Claimant’s claiming against various other railways and bus companies for regular accessibility failures. I felt it necessary to share their experiences.

I believe that whilst the current legislation lays adequate groundwork, it needs to be expanded and better enforced. The Equality Act has been in force since 2010 and the Disability Discrimination Act since 1995. Despite these laws being in force for this time, breaches are occurring daily. There needs to be more sanctions placed on transport providers when there are accessibility fails, these need to be better reported and followed up and repeat offenders made to answer for the failings. Should it be human error, training needs to be improved drastically and in the worst circumstance disciplinary procedures should reflect the severity of the access fail, especially if they cross a line into health and safety.

We have seen time and time again that operators are failing to fulfil their legal obligations. The majority is in relation to lack of ramp assistance, failing to complete hand over procedures leaving commuters stranded on platforms and trains alike, failing to advertise lift closures and repairs, once again leaving commuters stranded on platforms or unable to proceed through a train station. The issue is that other than raising a complaint, the commuters rarely know their rights to raise these as a legal case or even proceed to the licensing authority so without substantial backlash, the railways are continuing to fail without facing any negative consequences.

I don’t believe that the complaints do much to improve or change the attitudes or policies of providers and it seems like other than give feedback, the complaints do very little to feed into a productive improvement program. On the flip side, I have seen legal cases under the Equality Act 2010 obtain judgements and settlement agreements where undertakings have been given and improvements put in place. It seems that anything short of this fails to drum up any real change.

The transport mode brought to my attention time and time again is the railways. More so in London and in the South. We have repeat offenders when it comes to rail providers and some providers that are far better equipt and seemingly more enthusiastic to handle assistance requests. I have had clients confirming that when they visit the North of England they receive a far better service on the trains than in the capital.

I have worked with the EHRC on their transport projects and received valuable support from them when they ran their transport campaign, this brought about positive change but I fear wasn’t a long enough campaign. I cannot comment on the effectiveness of ORR but strongly believe and have supported the latest campaign for the CAA to step in and take further action with more severe sanctions.

On this point the current legal obligations of airlines needs to the strengthened and I strongly believe that the exemptions for air travel need to be removed. I have been inundated with enquiries against the airlines for failures when flying and within various airports. The actions of members if staff in allowing disabled passengers to crawl down aisles and attempt to crawl down stairs when their wheelchair has not been provided is sickening. This is further highlighted by the recent headlines of passengers dying trying to disembark because they haven’t received the necessary assistance. This should not be happening in 2023.

Transport operators need to deliver disability led training to all member’s of staff, they need to have open days to show the difficulties of travelling as a disabled commuter and the day to day barriers that are faced. Staff member’s should be readily available and providers should concentrate their efforts of resourcing the issue, removing new themes such as the DOO trains and improve their approach to commuters that need further assistance to allow for them to travel as independently as possible.

The ATP’s need to be reviewed. It shouldn’t be acceptable that all commuters who are able can disembark immediately yet those that need assistance are given a five minute ‘acceptability’ window for disembarking. If the doors were closed for five minutes to anyone that was able to disembark independently every time they got to a stop there would be uproar. This same attitude should be applied to those in need of assistance and no delay should be deemed ‘acceptable’.

Whilst it is promising that there is an inclusive transport strategy, it will not be effective until there is action, and sanctions for failing to take action.

March 2023