This wasn’t the post I had planned next, but sometimes things happen and it makes sense to go with it. So what have I got for you today? Well, I’ve recently experienced my worst journey on public transport to date. However, this disaster of a journey didn’t start when I left the house that day. It had built up from experiences during my two previous train journeys and stemmed from the question: Have you booked assistance? Let me set the scene…
… A few weeks ago, I went to my local train station for get the train to a hospital appointment. So far, so good. The lady at the ticket office asked me “Have you booked assistance?” Nothing new or untoward there. But, where as her colleagues have always been quite happy to help me without having booked in advance, this lady wasn’t. I had to justify why I hadn’t booked assistance to her. She came across as being confrontational and argumentative, which made me feel rather uncomfortable.
So, why hadn’t I booked assistance in advance? Well, there are a number of reasons. The biggest of these being that I was going to a hospital appointment and didn’t know what time I’d be travelling home. Previously, I’ve attempted to book assistance for hospital appointments, but been told that I couldn’t book without knowing my travel times for both outbound and inbound journeys. I’ve even been told “phone back when you know and we can book the assistance for you.” Erm… I won’t know until I’m leaving the hospital, by which time it’s too late for the outbound journey! *Face palm*
This was the reason I gave to the ticket office assistant on the day in question. But, it wasn’t the the only reason why I hadn’t booked assistance.
As someone with a chronic illness, I find it very difficult to know if and when I’ll be well enough to travel. While I have to push through ill health to get to hospital appointments, I’ll often have to leave later than I’d originally planned because I need a little extra sleep or a little extra time to get ready. In these instances, booking in advance would either mean I have to push myself harder (and crash harder as a result) to get the train I’ve booked, or leave the train staff in the lurch and get a later train. The latter of these would create more work for train staff than me just turning up when I’m able to.
As a mother, it’s hard to plan and stick to journey plans with the unpredictable nature of of having a baby under a year old. I may not be able to make it to the train I’d planned if Elise vomits all over us both just before we leave the house. I could get delayed if she decided she’s hungry or pickles when I try to wrap her. And what if she needs a nappy change, gets hungry or is having a grump during our journey? I regularly have to make journeys that involve more than one train. If Elise needs a nappy change, this could mean that I’m not able to catch the second train I’d booked assistance for – resulting in more hassle for everyone.
Plus, when I have booked assistance in advance, no one’s turned up to assist me! So what’s the point!? I find it less stressful to deal with assistance not turning up at short notice than when they’ve know about it for over 48 hours. Everyone is different, but for me, I find it infuriating when I’ve booked assistance and no one can be bothered to turn up. It makes me feel like the train staff don’t care and don’t value me as a customer and a person.
Also, who says that when you’re disabled you can no longer make a spontaneous trip!? Clearly I missed that memo. *Rolls eyes*
Anyway, back to me setting the scene for this particular day’s disaster…
… The next train journey I made, I was served by the same woman. She again pushed me about why I hadn’t booked assistance in advance. She forcefully told me that I should’ve been able to book the outgoing journey even if I couldn’t book assistance for the return journey. She’s spot on with what she said, but the way she went about it (tone of voice and emphasis on certain words) made me feel like she was accusing me of lying. Like I hadn’t really been refused when trying to book assistance, because I didn’t know when I’d be travelling home. She asked me for my name (again, very abruptly) so she could ‘look into it’. Seeing as this particular issues had happened more than two years ago, I don’t know what she hoped to uncover!
Fast forward a week and I was heading to the train station again. This time, I noticed myself becoming more and more anxious, the closer I got to the train station. When the station came into sight, I realised that my anxious feeling was in anticipation of potentially having to deal with this member of staff again because I hadn’t booked assistance. I shouldn’t be made to feel like this.
Now, I should mention at this point that I was heading to a hospital appointment with a new consultant, at the hospital where Elise was born. The same hospital who let me down during my pregnancy and post delivery and left me without the vital medication I needed in order to function and take care of Elise. It’s become apparent that these experiences have caused me some PTSD issues, which I was struggling with on this particular day.
I was aware that this day was going to be a difficult for me. So when I entered the station I breathed a sigh of relief when I realised that the ticket office was empty and there were two members of staff available to serve. I made a beeline to the male member of staff (to avoid the female member of staff and her questions and comments about me not having booked assistance). I knew that I couldn’t handle dealing with her on top of everything else that day.
The member of staff who served me was lovely and has always been lovely. I’m very lucky that my local train station have always been fantastic (apart from the particular lady in question). Then, all of a sudden, the lady I’d been trying to avoid had come over and demanded my address. No “please may I have… because…”. All I got was “I need your address.” Erm… what!? But, I was too stressed out at this point to question or argue. After giving her my address (and her then telling me it was so that her manager could contact me (I haven’t heard from them), I moved away and burst into tears. It all got too much for me. I found a nice supervisor and made him aware of the situation.
Before I go on with telling you about the rest of this disaster journey, I should say that I’ve had yet another run in with this particular member of staff. You can hear more about this in my 34 weeks old vlog. Thankfully, the supervisor was keeping an eye out for me and asked how I’d got on, knowing that the problematic member of staff was the only one in the ticket office. He was unimpressed that I’d had yet more problems with this member of staff and has come up with a plan of action that means I can bypass the problematic member of staff. But this shouldn’t be necessary. I shouldn’t be put at a disadvantage because of a member of staff’s attitude and I shouldn’t have to make accommodations and be inconvenienced because of ableism or rudeness.
Anyway, back to the journey in hand. When I arrived at the next station of my journey, I waited quite a while for someone to come with a ramp to get Elise and me off the train. This isn’t a big issue, as I know that staff aren’t aware where on the train the disabled spaces will be until it arrives on the platform. However, yet again staff attitudes were problematic.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywOS1DYtbYU[/embedyt]
The first thing the member of staff who got me off the train said was “I’m sorry, I don’t know where your carer’s gone.” Erm… what!? I was shocked at this assumption that a disabled person is unable to travel without someone escorting them. Yes, I appreciate that some disabled people do need a carer with them, but there are also a lot of disabled people who don’t! Why is a member of train staff assuming that because I’m disabled that I must be travelling with another adult!? Ugh! I asked the member of staff which platform I needed to get my next train and headed over, with the member of staff saying that he’d radio over so that they knew I was coming.
Low and behold, when I arrived onto the platform, no one knew I was coming. In addition, the member of train station staff on the platform refused to get ramp so that I could board the train, because apparently it wasn’t his job. According to him, it had to be a member of the Customer Assistance team that put me on the train. Strange, since on several occasions where train staff haven’t turned up with a ramp, it’s been the train conductor who’s got me off the train. I suspect it’s even less their responsibility than it is platform staff, yet they do it with no complaint and very apologetically that their colleagues haven’t arrived.
So, I missed the train and was sent over to a different platform. The member of staff who sent me there (the same one who wouldn’t get the ramp to get me on the train), told me that he’d radio his colleagues so they knew I was coming. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Yep! I turned up on the platform I’d been directed to and no one knew I was coming. Luckily, the staff on this platform were much more accommodating and got out the ramp without complaint. The assistance that the man who got me off the train said he would radio, never arrived.
Fast forward to me reaching my destination train station and I’m told that the lift isn’t working and that the station I’d come from should’ve informed me of this. The staff at my destination train station were (and are always) lovely about it. I gather that they’d had a challenging day, with the station I’d come from (a main station) not telling people about the issues with the lift. The initial solution that the destination train station staff had was to put me on the next train to the next station. However, this would’ve been no good at all. I’d have had no idea where I’d have ended up. Plus, I’d have had no clue how far out of my way I’d have been sent or how I’d get to my hospital appointment. In the end, three members of staff from the destination train station helped me up the stairs – one took my wheelchair, the other my SmartDrive and bag and the third stood behind me, poised to catch me should I fall. Not an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination.
Thankfully, I made it to my hospital appointment in time, but it was an extremely stressful and challenging journey. Booking in advance wouldn’t have changed any of that, it would’ve just made me more upset when things went wrong.
I wish I could say that the return journey was uneventful, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I managed to get to the main station where I needed to change trains without incident. But, the member of staff who got me off the train took it upon himself to take hold of my wheelchair and push me to my final train of the day, without permission. I don’t know how I didn’t burst into tears by this point. What I desperately needed when I got off that train, was to have 5 minutes to feed Elise, who by this time was getting rather fractious. I really needed to readjust my wrap too – all of her squirming had pulled a few bits loose and I wanted to tighten them up before moving on. But that wasn’t to be, all because the member of staff assumed that I needed him to push me and didn’t bother to check that this was in fact the case.
I REALLY needed to readjust the wrap!
I finally got to safely readjust my wrap and take a deep breath when the staff at my home town station got me off the train. As soon as I got home, I cried. And cried, and cried some more. It was the worst experience of public transport that I’ve ever had and I still can’t believe that so many things went wrong in one journey. Especially as most of them were down to the attitudes of members of train staff. It makes a mockery of the question: Have you booked assistance?
What are your experiences of getting public transport, either as a disabled or able person?
Find me on:
Bloglovin’ | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Snapchat | Google+ | YouTube
You can also sign up for my newsletter and check out our Family Instagram!
