‘It takes just one thing to go wrong to mess up my train trip’
Raj Aulakh, an electric wheelchair user, spoke to reporter Reem Ahmed about the challenges of using trains in Wales
WHEN Raj Aulakh takes a train ride, he has to think about more aspects of the journey than most people.
Will the lifts be working at the train station so he can reach the platform? Will the carriage be wide enough for his wheelchair to pass through? Will there be a plug socket in case he needs to charge his ventilation machine?
Meanwhile, things that are merely an inconvenience to non-disabled passengers – like last-minute platform changes – can derail his journey altogether.
Raj, 39, from Pontyclun, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic muscle wasting condition that causes progressive muscle weakness. He was diagnosed with the condition aged four, first started using a manual wheelchair aged nine, and then started using an electric wheelchair when he was around 13. Today, he uses a ventilation machine to help him breathe and requires 24-hour care.
“As my condition gets more advanced I get less use of my muscles,” he explained. “I have to have help with almost everything – just moving my hand or facing things.”
To coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, and with Disability History Month until December 16, we spoke to people with disabilities in Wales about how their conditions affect their lives.
Raj spoke to us about the challenges he faces and considerations he has to make when embarking on a train journey. With his house close to Pontyclun station, he said trains were a convenient mode of transport for him.
“A few years ago I used to go a bit more regularly... I still go out now, it’s just a bit harder through the progression of my condition. When I used to go out a bit more regularly, I used to use trains quite a bit then.”
When he does make trips, it’s usually from Pontyclun to Cardiff, and in the past he’s made trips to Swansea, Newport
and Neath. “You’ve got to plan a bit more in advance to make sure you’ve got every scenario and obstacle covered,” he said.
He said he’d had both positive and negative experiences on trains and had “mixed” feelings about their provision for people with disablities.
“There are definitely improvements that can be made,” he said.
One problem he pointed out was overcrowding on trains.
“Trains come through my village every hour, so timing is not the best,” he said. “If it’s quiet it’s not too bad. But then when it’s busy – if there’s a football match on or some sort of event in Cardiff central, like a concert or something – then it gets really manic. It gets very, very crowded and it’s pretty difficult – with people rushing about, it’s hard to get onto trains.”
He added: “Some of the trains can be quite narrow inside for my wheelchair to get into the right area of the train... especially when there are a lot of people.”
On a recent trip he made to the capital he said the busy train was “a bit cramped” and he was “basically in the doorway”.
Last-minute platform changes can also be a challenge. He spoke how there was usually a “mad dash” to the new platform – and while other passengers might rush via the stairs, people in wheelchairs had to wait for lifts.
“If you’re lucky, you might just about make it or they might wait for you, or if not, you’ll have to catch the next train which for me means I’d have to wait another extra hour just to get onto the next available train,” he said, adding it could be a “real nightmare” if the lifts weren’t working, which had happened to him on a couple of occasions. “I’ve been to some train stations and the lift might be out of service – and if they have just the one lift, which has happened before, then you can’t really get onto the platform. Then you’ll have to see if someone is available to come pick you up or get a taxi.”
He added: “Obviously it’s a pain when things like this happen to ablebodied people – you can imagine it’s 10 times the nightmare when you’re in a wheelchair.”
He also pointed out that at Cardiff Central the only way to get to the platform was via stairs or a lift, and he spoke of the importance of an alternative option.
“If the lift isn’t working, there’s no other way [for me] to get up to the platforms. The only other realistic option would be Queen Street [station] which would be about a 15-minute walk. If the weather’s bad that brings more challenges.”
And while many people rely on plug sockets on trains to charge their phones or laptops, for Raj their provision could be lifesaving. He uses a ventilation machine to help him breathe, and it is powered by batteries which need to be charged.
“Obviously I have to make sure I have plenty of batteries for that, because it’s something that’s very, very important. With the wheelchair, you can put it in manual drive... but with the ventilation machine, if that has got a low battery and you get [to the station] and a train has got delayed or cancelled then you’ve got a bit of a dilemma... it’s a lot more important.”
Asked about the accessibility of trains in Wales, Alex Harrison, the disability equality officer at Disability Wales, said: “A lot of [train stations] are just really inaccessible – whether it’s because they’ve got steps going up to them, or even those that don’t have steps going up to them, a lot of times the surface is really uneven, there might not be any parking anywhere near as well.”
She added it could be difficult for disabled people to navigate train stations. “We’ve had reports from our members saying things such as train stations not having enough clear signage for where disabled people need to go to ask for assistance, or having to walk quite a distance to get to the assistance,” she said. “We also have a massive issue of booked assistance just not turning up as well – that’s probably one of our main issues we hear about.”
She added: “While [new Transport for Wales trains] are an improvement for accessibility, we are seeing some continuing issues – so while the wheelchair space now for the new trains is a good size, we have seen that there are no tables in those spaces.”
Other aspects of trains that could pose problems for disabled people included the toilet layout – such as the sink being far away from the toilet itself – and wheelchair spaces in the new trains being used for luggage, Alex said. “There is still a lot that [train companies] need to do. It has felt like we’ve been telling them the same things they need to do for a long time. They make some changes which are good but they could be a lot better,” she said.
Transport for Wales was approached for comment.