My disabled mother and elderly father recently travelled by train to London for the first time in years to celebrate a big birthday.
They paid £500 for first-class tickets on Avanti West Coast, primarily for the use of an easily accessible toilet. However, it was a disaster.
My mother is a wheelchair user and my 80-year-old father is her carer. They were gutted to discover that the toilet in their carriage was not working due to a faulty door, and there were no other accessible ones in reach. The nearest was seven carriages away.
It was not possible for my father to push a wheelchair that far on a train.
Disabled people are already at such a disadvantage, even in finding the money for such expensive train tickets.
My parents were extremely uncomfortable and, to be quite frank, worried my mother was going to wet herself.
Avanti’s initial suggestion was to “offload” them at the next stop, which was demeaning and insulting.
Of course, getting a refund will require a lifetime of effort but, more than anything else, I want to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.
Name and address supplied
This was a horrible experience for your parents. After we contacted Avanti West Coast it apologised and offered them a full refund, as well as new tickets to travel at a future date.
“We’ve also offered a phone call with our accessibility and inclusion manager to apologise directly, and speak to them about the circumstances of their journey to ensure lessons are learned,” it says.
You are still corresponding with Avanti to establish what went wrong, in the hope others will be spared such an experience.
Your parents paid a small fortune for their tickets, so it’s worth checking out the concessions available for disabled rail passengers.
The disabled persons railcard, for example, entitles the customer to a third off travel for themselves and a companion.
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