New DART Improved Accessibility Pilot

[Colm Moore]

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2018/0129/936727-dart-accessibility-zones/

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/protests-as-irish-rail-rolls-out-accessibility-improvements-for-dart-services-1.3372246

http://www.irishrail.ie/DART%20Improved%20Accessibility%20PilotNew DART Improved Accessibility Pilot
26 January 2018

Iarnród Éireann is improving Accessibility for DART users by making travel easier and more secure.

Following a review of accessibility on DART, and consultation with users and representative bodies, Iarnród Éireann has launched a brand new DART Improved Accessibility Pilot (http://www.irishrail.ie/access-dart), a new zonal system to provide better service and quicker response times for DART accessibility users.

The DART Accessibility Pilot goes live on 29th January 2018. If you would like more information on this new process including zones and contact details you can find it at our DART Improved Accessibility Pilot (http://www.irishrail.ie/access-dart) section or if you have any further queries please contact us (http://www.irishrail.ie/contact-us/disabled-access) and we will be delighted to provide you with more information.

In true Irish Rail style, several of the attendees at today's launch couldn't get off the DART at Connolly.

[Colm Moore]

https://www.independent.ie/videos/irish-news/video-were-protesting-because-it-doesnt-change-a-lot-36541702.html

[Traincustomer]

In Connolly today I didn't see any information, either posters or leaflets, about this. Seems a good scheme in principle.

[James Shields]

This sounds like an improvement on the current situation, but doesn't go nearly far enough. Four hours notice to take a local Dublin trip is really not acceptable.

If a wheelchair user commutes to work, do they need to give four hours notice that they're coming to work every day? I don't think IÉ understand that a wheelchair might want to lead a normal life that the rest of us can take for granted.

I have a friend in Brey who is a wheelchair user, and she frequently gets stuck on trains when staff forget to ring ahead and inform her destination station, or the staff at the destination fail to follow the instruction.

It seems outragous to me that when every train platform in the country was rebuild in the last twenty years or so, we still don't have level access between platforms and trains. Luas trams are level access from platforms and are properly accessible (I realise they don't have the legacy problems of the rail network).

Buses have automatic deploying ramps. Is there any reason these couldn't also be on trains?

I realise that making our rail network fully accessible will cost a lot of money and that IÉ can't be expected to foot the entire bill.

[Thomas J Stamp]

the initiative has already broken down - as Colm pointed out (and was covered in the media the next day) it didnt even work at the launch as wheelchair users were left stranded on the train. I'd be carpeting the PR guy for that one (Hi Barry x).

it is longstanding RUI policy that all trains and stations are fully accessible, it is simply degrading to ring up 24, 4 or even 1 hour in advance. it doesn't need massive amounts of money. You can put the current hand deployed ramp on every DART and ensure the driver and destination station knows it will need to be deployed on arrival. On launch day the destination station wasn't told of the user on board (which is as amazing as it seems) as apparently, someone forgot. We have been told of this happening since.

But, you know, we don't have fully staffed stations and having the driver get out of the cab to deploy the ramp takes time and so on and so on. These are excuses and easily solved. It's very similar to the quiet carriages thing. Its too much effort to enforce so sod it. The wheelchair users are likewise too much effort, it seems.