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| TX: 29.09.06 - Disabled Railcard PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE Now this month sees the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Disabled Persons Railcard and ATOC - the Association of Train Operating Companies - has demonstrated its continued commitment to the card by introducing several features. More people are now eligible to apply for one and the new cards can run for up to three years. But has happened to the card, and more importantly of course its users, in that quarter of a century since the idea first borne? Because issuing a special card for disabled rail travellers surely meant that the rail companies would have to take their travelling needs much more into account. Well we sent Simon Parkes to find out and he began his journey on the approaches to Petersfield Station in Hampshire. PARTON Come on Endel, come on, good boy, let's go and get the train then young man. Oh well the gate's down again. This is one of the difficulties about small regional stations is there isn't a way to get to the other side of the platform other than crossing the road crossing. If your timing's wrong and you've got a down train just come in and you're waiting for your up train you're going to miss it and that's just one of life's things. PARKES Alan Parton was severely injured in the first Gulf War. He's a wheelchair user and has his Labrador dog, Endel, as his constant travelling companion. Not that this appeared to phase Chris, the guard on duty at Petersfield Station. CHRIS Once the train stops we go to the proper coaches, there's a disabled sign on the side. Open the door and on the step of the train there'll be two holes, we lock these lugs into the holes there, that secures the ramp, then we can put the disabled person on to the train, the train closes its doors and off it goes. ACTUALITY Yeah, see you later, thanks ever so much for your help getting on this morning. Thank you, bye. PARKES And with that Alan and myself and of course Endel were bound for London Waterloo. Such ease of access is very recent, according to Ann Bates, deputy chair of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee. And she recalled the days before the Disabled Persons Railcard came into existence. BATES As a wheelchair user myself I have happy memories of the guard's van, with the pigeon pooping floorboards and there was no loudspeaker in there, there was no heat, there was no safety equipment - more worryingly. And I'd like to say that there were good things about that, in that if you travelled into Victoria in the mush you always had company in there and there was great times and great funny instances like I actually got out of my wheelchair one day and sat on the floor because a lady was about to faint and I was the only one with the chair. And if you've ever travelled in a rush hour train taking your own chair isn't a bad idea on some of these trains. PARKES But something needed to be done. Bert Massey, now chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, told me what happened over 30 years ago. MASSEY I suppose the story really started in the 1970s when a man named Peter Larch, who was a wheelchair user, became very motivated by the fact he couldn't get on a train unless he travelled in the guard's van and that really was the option in the 1970s. And Peter worked with British Rail and in 1979 a seat was taken out of the first class coach, which was on the West Coast Line, and I have pictures of Peter as the first wheelchair passenger travelling in the train with everybody else. And then the thought became how could British Rail do more for disabled people? PARKES But it wasn't until 1981, already denoted by the United Nations as the International Year of the Disabled, that things finally came to a head, as reported by BBC News. ARCHIVE: NEWS CLIP Britain's three quarters of a million disabled people have been given the chance of half price travel with British Rail's issue of a new railcard today. It's been welcomed by such groups as the blind because it will help them lead more active lives. PARKES The new card was trumpeted by the then chairman of the then British Rail Sir Peter Parker. ARCHIVE: PARKER We're coping now with what is it three quarters a million people, we've got the qualifications and the definitions of that right, we'll learn from this, things will go wrong a bit, we'll learn from that and so I see us, as I say, building from this bridge head. PARKES Did you know what you wanted at the time? MASSEY We wanted to make rail travel affordable for disabled people. So the railcard was simply a means towards that end because then, as now, disabled people are disproportionately represented in those areas of society who have less disposable income. We know then that the trains were slowly becoming accessible most disabled people couldn't afford to travel. PARKES Meanwhile back on the 11:18 from Petersfield to Waterloo I asked Alan Parton how the scope of the Disabled Persons Railcard had altered things. PARTON Well actually some of the benefits of it is actually now opening up to the discount to use certain chains of hotels and things, which is a real club feel to it, I mean that is nice if you're going somewhere to get 20% off a hotel room, which all adds up. I believe personally that the railcard itself is sort of focusing the industry to do more for the disabled person and to me it's working, bit by bit it's working, maybe not as fast as I'd like. PARKES What do you put those improvements down to though, is it the railcard or is it just simply technological advance? PARTON I think the changes are going to happen but I actually do think that having the railcard was the start of this focusing. PARKES So it's a catalyst? PARTON Yes it is a catalyst and actually within any industry the people that run the Disabled Persons Railcard will want to do more, so they will approach people in the industry and say look how about this and one of the recent things I've seen now is they're producing a card, so if you travel with an assistance dog - a guide, a hearing dog or a service dog like Endel - like you can put a card in the seat, like there is an assistance dog at this seat so no one will take the seat and tread on the dog and I'm thinking that has all come out because of the Disabled Persons Railcard, listening to the need of the users. PARKES How many people are entitled to a railcard and how many actually have one? MASSEY It's certainly nearly two million just on the benefits alone and we know 80,000 people have one. So there's a huge gap. PARKES Why is there such a big gap? MASSEY I think it is because most disabled people don't know they're entitled to a railcard and therefore don't claim it, so we need to tell people that this is there. The railways are increasingly accessible, the railcard brings the cost down of using them and so if you are disabled and you get, for example, Disability Living Allowance apply for the railcard. And there's other benefits you can get as well. So apply and it makes life a lot easier and less expensive. PARKES But with general fare structures presently so complicated doesn't the railcard only make things even denser? Ann Bates. BATES In some ways it's more complex because the railcard does not offer a discount on certain supersaver tickets. But to be realistic on a £10 ticket would you expect to get a discount as well? The trouble with that is it adds to confusion - what do you get a discount on and what don't you get a discount on. In some ways it's easier because if you use the booking service and in theory if I didn't know about the fares I could ask advice at the time that I book. I'm lobbying hard to get all the booking lines made into 0800 numbers so it's a free call number, you can ring, ask advice before you travel and ask advice about the fares that are available. TRAIN ANNOUNCEMENT The next station is London Waterloo. This train terminates ... PARTON Come on then young man, come on let's go then, come on then. Have a good stretch. Okay, we've arrived, thanks very much for your help. STATION OPERATIVE Not at all, there you go. PARTON And on time, there you go. PARKES A double bonus. PARTON A double bonus, but it's nice that the ramp's there and now we're ready to take - but what a difference between Petersfield and here, you know we have what two platforms at Petersfield and here we have 16? PARKES Alan, would you ever be without a railcard. PARTON No it's part of my wallet now, I've got my railcard and my bus card and such like and they're an integral part of my life now. And you know we have cards will travel. WAITE Alan Parton and his dog Endel arriving safely at Waterloo with our reporter Simon Parkes. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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