Dad of wheelchair user slams lack of automatic ramps on brand new trains

AuthorRoisin Cullen
Published date29 June 2022
Publication titleDublinLive (Ireland)
The brand new trains are currently on their way over from South Korea - but they do not have automatic ramps like Dublin Bus. As it stands, wheelchair users have to wait for a staff member to manually put down a ramp before they can get off a train

Bernard Mulvany from Access for All Ireland feels that a perfect opportunity has been missed to make transport in Ireland more accessible. He told Dublin Live that wheelchair users will be reliant on staff members for the next few decades and unable to make last minute plans., and that the new trains are not suitable for all citizens.

He said: "We are raging. They are spending a serious amount of money on trains that you have to rely on people to get you on and off.

"The worst part of it is that we are constantly being told to leave our cars at home because of the climate crisis. We have been highlighting this for three years.

"The new DART carriages are going to have the little automatic ramps. That's great but that's only 32 train stations.

"There is a whole country out there where wheelchair users have to wait for someone to get them on and get them off. It's big money, this means nothing is going to change for at least thirty to forty years.

"If you are a wheelchair user someone has to be there to put the ramp down so you can get off. You have to hope that someone is going to be there at the station.

"That's another issue because not all the stations are manned. Sometimes requests slip through the cracks.

"A lot of the time there is nobody there. The workers are usually are very good.

"It's all about trust, trusting in the transport systems that you can equally access transport but that's not there. It's just outrageous."

The full-time carer explained that not being able to easily access public transport takes away someone's independence and freedom. He worries that in the future his daughter may have to say no to plans with her friends if she can't rely on trains.

The People Before Profit man said: "You have to live your life a day ahead...

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