Wheelchair users could be denied travel on West Somerset Railway

The WSR has introduced new policy for disabled visitors. It contains useful advice about which station facilities are suitable or not. It seems the "disabled", if they can show they are indeed "disabled", can get half fare travel, and their carer likewise. I'm not quite sure who on the WSR staff determines whether a visitor is "disabled" and who is a "carer". Personally, I think it would be better for the Railway to charge full fare and use the extra revenue to invest in better facilities on the trains and stations for those who find the present arrangement wanting. To be fair, the WSR has and is investing in better facilities. A little more cash might speed that work.

Now, the new policy has a particular fault which visitors using wheelchairs and motorised scooters do need to pay attention to. The policy lays down maximum dimensions on the trains for wheelchairs and motorised scooters - 1200mm long, 700mm wide, 1350mm high, 1200mm from floor to lap, 150mm from floor to top of shoe. The WSR have adopted the dimensions from UK and EU regulations for accommodating wheelchairs in new-build trains and other railway facilities. The regs do not apply to heritage railways. Furthermore, my research finds the regulations were based on the results of a consultation exercise which measured lots of wheelchairs but which failed to deliberately include a good representation of all users especially long-term wheelchair-bound adults, many of which cannot use the "reference wheelchair" as now specified in the regulations. So, we have a UK and EU regulation based on a flawed consultation exercise and now adopted by a heritage railway who, despite having their attention drawn, seem to want to ignore the faults and the inappropriateness of the regulations to their business.

The WSR say those who use "oversize" wheelchairs can ask for an "assessment" which, if successful, may allow them to travel. I have no idea, and the WSR have declined to explain, what processes the "assessment" uses, who carries it out, where it is carried out and when. I suspect the WSR have not even thought about it, yet.

The result is many wheelchair-users, perhaps including some regular WSR visitors, will find themselves barred from travelling on this heritage railway.

I know one wheelchair-bound user who has used the WSR trains since 1977 with no problem, incident or complaint (from either side) and who now find his wheelchair exceeds the maximum dimension by a few centimetres and technically cannot be carried. And that despite no change to the Railway infrastructure, no change to the ramps used to get the wheelchair on and off the train, no change to the accommodation inside the train. Nothing has changed. Except the rules. To me, that sounds like discrimination and could be challenged in court if someone felt so inclined.

Many representations have been made to the Railway asking for a rethink but it is clear from their replies that they have no intention of changing the maximum dimensions.

Like many folk who have a wheelchair-bound member of the family I remain positive and optimistic that one day the WSR will see the light and modify the policy to enable almost all wheelchair users to travel on the best heritage railway in the land.

A Facebook Group

"I travelled on the West Somerset Railway in 2010" is a Facebook group for those who plan to travel on Britain's longest heritage railway in 2010. Hopefully a ticket will be purchased! It would be nice to see a large membership of the group on Facebook and even better if many members can make at least one trip this year and help the Railway reach a record 250000 passengers in 2010. I suppose the key to success is to ensure many Facebook users join up. I'm not sure how that is done effectively but I'm sure every effort will be made. There are ten stations - Bishops Lydeard, Crowcombe Heathfield, Stogumber, Williton, Doniford, Watchet, Washford, Blue Anchor, Dunster and Minehead. And lots to superb scenery along the twenty mile steam powered railway which runs from the Vale of Taunton Deane, through the gap between the Quantock Hills and the Brendon Hills, to the Bristol Channel coast at Watchet, Blue Anchor and Minehead, the gateway to Exmoor. See www.wsr.org.uk for more details.

Snow but no supertrain to the rescue this time

A rare snowfall in West Somerset led briefly to a few transport problems. Of course it was nothing like the blizzard of 1978. Then, everything stopped. Except a few folks on the West Somerset Railway at Minehead who steamed "Vulcan" which then ploughed through chimney-high drifts all the way to Bishops Lydeard. Over the next few days, the little train was the only effective transport between West Somerset and the rest of the world. Mailbags, hospital patients and folks just trying to get home were carried in style through the snowy landscape. The Railway did a good job and got a very good press for its troubles. The recent snowfall cold have provided a perfect repeat but there appeared to be no desire this time. To be fair the roads were re-opened quickly and with the Railway's infrastructure more complex than it was in 1978 movement of any train, emergency or not, involves more people and more equipment - getting folks to their workplaces and getting the signals and points unfrozen would have been a major task. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to see No 88, two coaches (one a buffet) and No 9351 at the rear, chugging through the snow-covered West Somerset countryside, doing what steam trains do best.

Nearest station to Minehead?

Well, the train ticket website thetrainline.com has a feature "Find the nearest station". Enter "Minehead" and you might expect to see the well-known and very much alive Minehead Station, the seaside terminus of the West Somerset Railway. Or even Taunton, perhaps. Not so, you get a map with a "You are here" flag stuck in Minehead and "Station" symbols at the South Wales towns of Llantwit Major and Rhoose, both across the Bristol Channel. Yes, nearest as the seagull flies but, heck, what a pathetic example of how not to use geographic information. Oh, I've just realised it's a Google Maps function, isn't it, so it's just another example of how poor these "maps" actually are. One day someone will lose their lives by relying on such trash. OK, OK. They do serve a purpose as a general locational tool at the smaller scales (that's the road atlas scales, not the detailed scale, folks). But using the data for intelligent queries - well, I ask you! And just how is the user of thetrainline.com website supposed to get from Llantwit Major to Minehead? Catch a train of course - probably back the way you came. It's rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. Come on thetrainline.com - wake up!

Geocaching

Without giving the location away, I must report an recent interesting encounter with two enthusiastic "geocachers". Geocaching is an activity which involves one party placing a small box or container, the "cache", in a hidden spot and listing a series of clues and coordinates on a geocaching website. Other geocachers then set out to find the cache. When found, the finders often leave a small object in the container and take one away.

The two enthusiasts, armed with the details and a GPS, were certainly in the right area and homing in on their target, which happened to be a structure within the railway fences. They had crossed the fence and made their way along the tracks towards said structure. I happened to be there, with permission, for photography purposes. Since two trains were due - we could hear them - I felt I had better have a word or two.

We had a brief and constructive chat, I pointed out they should not be on the railway, they agreed, we had a very quick look for the cache, found nothing. I suggested the cache is probably accessible from the other side of the railway fence. They agreed and off they went back over the fence. I did ask them to contact the cache placer and ask for a warning word to be place on the website page.

As it happens, I contacted the placer, who responded very quickly and responsibly. And I would like to thank him for that swift action. I'd also like to thank him for advising folks to travel on the Railway when they go out looking for his caches.

Rail grinding grinds on

The much awaited report on the so called "wheel/rail interface" problems that beset the West Somerset Railway in 2008 has finally been published. Two documents are being made available to working members and shareholders (not sure about WSRA members though). The bulky document is a report by David Holmes, a consultant engineer, brought in by WSR Plc Vice Chairman David Morgan to investigate the technical issues. The other is a summary by David Morgan, who headed the committee/group charged with looking into the whole episode.

The reports contain most of what folks expect, touching mostly on technical and management. And there are a few lessons learned, notably that works involving third parties should be subject to proper contractual procedures including proper inspection of work done. acceptance and closure, all of which were, incredibly, not done when the rails were treated.

I am not a lover of the phrase "lessons learned" which I hear so often these days - as if it is OK to make and write off mistakes in the pursuit of excellence. Not good enough for 99.9% of what we expect from competent folk.

It's not a "whitewash" but to me because it falls short of explaining exactly how it was allowed to happen. Because it needs to deal with the comptencies and ambitions of people central to the issues. Which is a management problem and not part of the remit.

Delegation was employed to the point of severance of any monitoring. Which, as any scholar of railway building in the 1800s will know, leads only to failure and wasted money.

Interestingly, the reports side-step the question of how much money has been lost.

There seems to be a ground swell of desire to put all this behind us. Fair enough. But only if we can be sure it will not happen again.

We shall see if lessons have, indeed, been learned.

Further to Barry Doe's article in an earlier Rail magazine in which he criticised the WSR for failing to provide a daily service to and from Taunton, I note Barry has now responded publicly in his Rail column to the many people who complained. It would seem he has failed to acknowledge the simple facts of business (there must be a market and there must be the infrastructure and staff to make it profitable). He says he had a positive phone discussion with the WSR General Manager and was clearly pleased to learn the WSR have distant plans for a park-n-ride at Bishops Lydeard, by which distant visitors can change trains. Whilst the WSR GM is clearly better placed than I am to make comment about future WSR plans, I would suggest the obstacles I so carefully pointed out to Barry Doe would still remain, even if such as facility existed at Bishops Lydeard. Indeed, it would not even be a "park and ride". It would be more of a "ride-change-ride". Unless there is a main line company willing to run their trains, daily, every hour or so, to Bishops Lydeard, and the WSR can itself provide a regular, daily service, throughout most of the day and evening, and there is sufficient passenger traffic, then the whole idea will not provide the kind of service Barry Doe requires. I am impressed by how easily Barry Doe has accepted things, even to the extent of mention in his column. Like many long-time WSR supporters, I do not accept such ideas lightly, and although I would love to see a regular service to and from Taunton, it must only be done when all the pegs fit in the right holes. Sorry, Barry.