“The new normal”​ railway must be inclusive and accessible
By: Christiane Link
Tags: Railways, Inclusion, Accessibility

It was 2008 during the massive banking crisis when I boarded a plane to Frankfurt at London City Airport to deliver training for Lufthansa’s flight attendants, a journey I did many times before. This time was different. Instead of worrying if the plane was overbooked, I was shocked to see that the flight was virtually empty. I had a staff ticket. The only other passengers on board were several older couples on their way to a short trip to Germany. There was not a single business traveller on my plane, starting from London’s business airport. The only passengers left were pensioners and me with a ticket paid for by Lufthansa.

A challenging relationship

When I joined the railway industry in January, I didn’t expect in my wildest dreams what would happen to this industry only three months after I joined. I had decided to leave journalism covering UK current affairs for German media outlets, a job I wanted to do since I could read. The reason why I wanted to become a journalist is the same motivation why I decided to agree to an offer to become Head of Accessibility — impact. I could see I would have an impact in an industry which maybe has the most challenging relationship with the disability community of all industries in the UK.

Then COVID-19 hit us hard; the trains were as empty as the Lufthansa flight in 2008. That didn’t mean less work or less impact for me. My team and I worked hard to make sure that the new COVID-19 conditions still were as accessible as possible. We checked crowd-control systems, new timetables, wrote staff briefing after staff briefing. And I heard the same what I heard in 2008 at Lufthansa — if the business travellers stay away we must serve the leisure traveller. That also means we must become more accessible.

At the same time, we started to implement a new Accessible Travel Programme at GTR, which drives change on all levels of the organisation when it comes to accessibility.

Disabled people often get the feeling that they are not seen as customers. And there are very valid reasons why they are feeling that way.

It is no secret that there is a gulf between the railway industry and disabled passengers. Disabled people often get the feeling that they are not seen as customers. And there are very valid reasons why they are feeling that way.

Failed assists are not just an inconvenience

A major issue are so-called failed assists when assistance is not provided as it should be and people get stranded on trains, have to get lifted by strangers or even crawl out of the train. Even so, these incidents have a great impact on passengers, physically and mentally, they are not treated as incidents. Something we have changed at GTR already. We are investigating failed assists now in the same way as any other incident or accident. We use the same processes, and an accessibility manager oversees every case. If the industry seriously wants to stop these incidents, they have to investigate them seriously. Not to blame people, but to get to the root causes of the problem.

Then there is an issue of how projects are planned. I will never understand why decision-makers are not more eager to deliver accessibility. Can you be proud of a project when it excludes 20% of the population? Isn’t it far more fulfilling to deliver projects which can be used by as many people as possible? And even the most disengaged decision-maker should see that this is the right thing to do. Who will ever be proud to say they have delivered dozens of inaccessible projects because delivering mediocre projects was always good enough? But this needs a culture change. Delivering inaccessible projects must become unacceptable. And no, it’s not always a money problem. Removing a step during the planning process to improve the access doesn’t cost a thing, but it needs the will and knowledge to do it. And the awareness that older and disabled customers are first and foremost customers.

So maybe for the first time for decades, the railway industry must work hard now to get its passengers back. It will not work without listening to customers. It’s maybe a once in a lifetime chance to become a customer experience-driven industry, and that can only mean an inclusive and accessible industry as well.

With an ageing population and an increase of disabled people in general, there must not be a single development project where accessibility is overlooked or even actively disregarded. That’s not sustainable and will backfire in times when every passenger counts.

To be inclusive means to be accessible by default

So that can only mean the industry has to become more inclusive. To be inclusive means to be accessible by default. If disabled people struggle to get to work because they get forgotten on a train regularly or have to wait far too long before assistance is provided, they will not become commuters. They will avoid travelling by train, which I did very often in the past decades.

I think accessibility managers play a vital role to make that happen. I’m proud to be the only Head of Accessibility of a train operating company in the UK, but in fact, we need many more. We need senior managers who develop accessibility strategies and who push for accessibility every single day. I consider myself lucky to have a team of accessibility managers, and that’s how it should be in every big organisation.

I firmly believe you can’t be an accessibility manager without being passionate about accessibility. This is not just another job which pays the bills. Everyone who thinks it just pays the bills is part of the problem. They should make way for those who are passionate about it and want to work hard for equality and inclusion because that’s what this is really about.

Accessibility and inclusion are teamwork

Everyone who works in railway has a responsibility to deliver accessibility.

On the other hand, we can’t expect that accessibility managers are delivering accessibility alone. Everyone who works in railway has a responsibility to deliver accessibility. And I really mean everyone — from every CEO and MD in the industry to the ticket office staff at a remote station. Accessibility and inclusion is teamwork, and it needs accountability from everyone and managers who feel it’s their responsibility to deliver it every single day.

So the aviation industry started to appreciate disabled and older passengers during a crisis. I hope that this pandemic could trigger the same within the railway industry. We have to appreciate every single customer. Only that is really inclusive and will improve the lives of many people, not only disabled people.