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A WHEELCHAIR USER in Dublin has spoken of her frustration at being left behind on a train at Heuston Station which then darkened its lights leaving her stranded.
Louise Bruton, who blogs about her experiences as a wheelchair user on her website Legless in Dublin, detailed her experience of being stranded on the train on Wednesday 9 November, together with two other recent examples of problems she has encountered due to her disability, at Electric Picnic and on a visit to London.
On 9 November Bruton was returning from giving a lecture in Galway when she became stranded as the last person in the last carriage on the Heuston service.
The train came to a stop some distance further down the track than she had expected, at which point it dimmed its lights.
Bruton was left stranded on the train for 20 minutes.
She shouted and called for help repeatedly and pushed the train’s emergency button to little effect.
Eventually a response to a distress-tweet she had posted gave her the emergency number of Heuston’s station manager who answered and finally came to her aid.
With the lights dimmed on the train Louise described the scene as being “a scene from a 90s teen horror flick” in a post on her site.
“Disabled people are being reduced every single day, whether it’s on a train line or at a music festival, and the ones with the power to change anything aren’t taking action,” she said.
This isn’t an attack on Electric Picnic… or Irish Rail, this is the way that society in general overlooks the needs of disabled people.
A spokesperson for Irish Rail said it apologises “to Louise for this unacceptable situation”.
“While assistance was provided to Louise upon boarding in Galway, there was a communication falldown which resulted in Heuston not being informed that assistance would be required. While we are pleased the Station Controller in Heuston assisted her, she should not have been in such a situation which caused her understandable concern,” the spokesperson said.
While the train involved – as with all our trains – is designed to modern accessibility standards, trains must have safe clearance from platforms as they can pass through stations at speed, which means a mobile ramp is required to ensure customers using wheelchairs can safely board and alight.
The company says it is “undertaking a review of our arrangements for assisting mobility-impaired customers to better assist customers at all times, including working with disability representative groups for their input”.
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After all the money they spent to “upgrade” the trains, not 1 planner or engineer ever thought to make them accesible for wheelchairs. I got a train from Kilkenny to Dublin last year. 5 mins out from the station the train stopped, sat on the line for 15 min and went back to kilkenny. Why? … because they forgot to bring the wheelchair ramp for the next station!!! You’d think that they would be standard issue for every station but not in our forward planning country.
@Point Blank: I don’t use public transport that much but I’ve seen some busses where a ramp is built into the door/step. This ramp is lowered by pressing a button I assume. Why can’t this be put into place for trains, dart. luas, etc. I’m no engineer but there has to be some one out there with a brain who can design this & make it work. Also get rid of the step up onto all pavements in every town, village in Ireland
Wouldnt be that hard to fit a ramp on say 1 carridge like they have on the buses.
It’s seems odd in this age that trains wouldn’t have an automatic ramp at the door that can ha ve a button pushed so it slides out, doing away with this farce of getting a ramp & remembering a ramp.
@Mary… the thing is that I am an engineer (mechanical) and that’s why this pisses me off so much. In almost every other European country the carriages have a built in ramp. Busses in sweden “lean” towards the platform for wheelchairs and buggies. All I can see here is that someone in charge didn’t want to spend a few quid extra and now it’ll cost millions to upgrade the whole lot. Typical Irish story.
It’s not sure I read the piece right but did she attempt to get off or ask anyone for help. I mean you cant just sit there either saying nothing and then tweet sitting in the dark. Just ask for help even if there was a breakdown in communication. Any member of the public will help you. We are gone too PC as a nation and have to blog tweet anything bad that happens.
@Donnacha Bhoicaire: The journal article is pretty bad – she was shouting out the window for someone to come help her but nobody was around. Tweets only came into it because she used them to get the emergency number for the station manager.
In her own words: http://leglessindublin.com/2016/11/im-tired-shouting-help/
Most busses have this feature, which pops out at the push of a button.
@taim tim: still wondering why she didn’t just Google the number and get it immediately, instead of tweeting and having to wait until somebody noticed and replied
Jumperoo .. she’s a blogger, that’s why .
This is exactly what she is talking about Drew. This is not just a once off minor problem. Read her blog. It is systemic across our society. How do you think you’d feel if you were trapped on a train in the dark by yourself and the only way you could get attention was by tweeting the company. Have some compassion man.
Irish Rail. We go further to leave you there . Shocking disrespect shown to people with disabilities is increasing
Communication fall down!..hate corporate speak..
Got a train from Dublin to Limerick last yr. Was getting my suitcases off in Limerick Junction and the train took off for Mallow leaving the suitcases at the station and us still on the train. Was damn lucky I hadn’t ‘t decided to get the kids off first. The train conductor was right beside me and saw it all unfold and said there was nothing he could do as the train pulled away. He was a total pig. So this story doesn’t surprise me at all…
@ Sinead … I would have pulled the emergency stop cord. If the conductor can’t sort out that kind of situation then he/she shouldn’t be in that job.
Point Blank. I pulled the cord and explained the situation to the train driver and he was even more of a pig. I rang irish rail the next day but got nowhere. Bunch of tossers
Disabled people have a lot to deal with and I have great respect for them as they try to battle their way around unsuitable cities but reading her tweets say that maybe she orchestrates some of these incidents. If I was stuck on a train like this I think I’d be ringing people not tweeting.
Ring company. You get apology. Nothing gets done. Do like Louise did. People read about it. People talk about it. She is an activist striving for companies to put simple plans in place to help people.
And what would happen if, as has happened to us all, her phone battery had died? Spend the night on the train?? What would that feel like?
Dead right, Dessie. This shouldn’t have happened her but I can’t understand why she’d send a tweet and then wait around timing how long it took somebody to notice it, instead of just looking up the phone number and getting an immediate response.
This happened to another wheelchair user last year who had no phone battery left. What should he have done? Would Irish rail be in the wrong or him? If it’s Irish rail then they’re in the wrong here too and that’s where the focus should be.
People with disabilities shouldn’t HAVE to ask for help, or be checked on or have to ring helplines or tweet for help. Trains should be designed for ALL in a way that we can all use them with ease, whether you’re pushing a buggy, using a wheelchair, or walking. It’s called Universal Design and it changes people’s lives for the better.
I was at a train station at Heuston station a couple of weeks ago up in dublin I seen a lot of people rushing in the train to get home I seen a man in a wheelchair up in dublin he needed help getting into the Train I stopped people rushing in and helped him into the train I stood in the middle of the door and let him in but he needed to be pushed up onto the train there was a gap beside the doors no ramp it’s a disgraceful it’s not their fault that they have a disability they are also human beings that should be treated like ones not differently cause they have a disability they want to be treated like a human being with respect and a ramp should be put in places for wheelchairs and when u are on the train there should be space and a table for them incase they work for their laptop or books just like people who haven’t got a disability
You would think that they’d check the trains at the end of each journey for situations like this. How long would it take someone to do a walk through the train?
People with wheel chairs need to be treated appropriately Houston station needs to out up a ramp for disabled people who are in wheelchairs they should be treated with respect I even witness a man stuck and I helped him onto the train there should be more respect for disabled people it’s discrimination against disabled people
@Martin McDonagh: Houston, we have a problem?
@Dave Murray: Yes Dave, we do, obviously! Martin is obviously a conscientious person and feels strongly and all you can do is belittle that. And coming from a person who says they work for Dublin Bus, is not a good reflection on the industry and so undoubtedly, there is a problem!!!!!Well we all love a bit of karma so you better join your little hands together and hope that your future children are not born with a disability or that yourself or one of your family end up with one.
Irish rail are less than useless. Effing money pit. Should be scrapped.
According to the article she was left on the train for 20 minutes , this was a breakdown in communication / genuine oversight is this happening every day ? Or an isolated incident ? Im sure it was upsetting to her and the company will take steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again why go to the media ?
To highlight the desperate state of public transport in this country maybe?
For a “small”country our public transport is not that bad , at least it’s still in state hands hasn’t been privatised where fares become unaffordable.
Not an isolated incident, this happened to another wheelchair user last year. https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.thejournal.ie/disabled-man-train-2100170-May2015/&ved=0ahUKEwjD__Sq6LTQAhVlBMAKHZ8_BQ8QFggZMAA&usg=AFQjCNFQTpSpNsHeIx-5a61QyRArmBqrIg
20 minutes is not massive, why was emergency button next not pressed?
@Dave Murray:whatever
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