'I was stranded at tram stop due to broken lifts'

A man in a wheelchair has described his "frustration and anger" after he was left stranded at a Metrolink tram stop in Greater Manchester.

Gary Dawson, 42, from Oldham, was stuck at the Failsworth platform after getting off to find both lifts were out of service and there were no staff to help him.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has apologised and said the stop is one of several on the network expected to have new lifts in the next two years.

Mr Dawson, who had to catch another tram to a different stop, told BBC Radio Manchester these experiences can make wheelchair users "feel like second class citizens" who are "always expected to just make do".

Mr Dawson was out with his family in Manchester on Saturday before catching the tram to Failsworth to meet a friend.

But once he arrived at the tram stop he discovered that both platform lifts were out of order.

Despite pressing the emergency contact buttons and calling the helpline, he said he received no response.

He caught the tram to nearby Hollinwood, where one out of the two lifts was working, before he pushed himself for a mile along the main road to Failsworth to meet his friend.

"When I pressed the emergency button and didn't get a response, that frustration turned into anger," Mr Dawson said.

"The reality is that there's a lot of people in similar situations to me that would've be quite frightened and scared.

"If that had been the last train and there'd been no-one around to help me, I would've been completely stuck.

"My options would have been to try and get down two or three flights of stairs - when I'm completely paralysed from the chest down - or calling the police."

"The world is never going to be fully accessible," he said. "It's never going to be a utopia.

"But we're not talking about making adaptations to castles, stately homes or listed buildings - this Metrolink stop is a relatively new stop.

"It should be relatively standard practice that they maintain these things."

Mr Dawson also said this incident is not a one-off issue just affecting him.

"This is just a common state of affairs for public transport when you're so reliant on accessibility."

Some Metrolink lifts are currently "out of service due to vandalism or require more complex repairs and are awaiting new parts", a TfGM spokesman said.

Work is under way to progress to replace the lifts at Failsworth, Firswood, Chorlton, Brooklands and Heaton Park, within the next two years.

TfGM also said lifts at Monsall, Queens Road, East Didsbury, Sale, Timperley, St Werburgh's Road, Besses O'th' Barn, Derker and Etihad, are set to be replaced.

Fran Wilkinson from the transport provider said it was "fully committed to being as inclusive as possible".

She said: "We are working with the operator and suppliers to speed up repair times and will be trialling remote monitoring of three lifts over the next six months that we hope will provide information in real time and allow us to respond much more quickly when faults occur."

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