The Disabled Persons Passenger Charter aims to bring improved journeys for disabled people providing them with confidence to travel whilst making journeys easier.
The new Disabled Persons Passenger Charter for bus, coach, taxi, private hire vehicle and rail charter will provide a straightforward explanation of disabled peoples rights providing them with easier travel and bringing confidence to use the public transport network.
Bringing together information for disabled passengers travelling throughout England, the charter will advise passengers how to deal with things when they do not go as expected.
Last year the Government's National Disability Strategy revealed a host of initiatives which set out to provide improvements of disabled passengers such as an accessibility audit for all railway stations, clearer audible and visual announcements on buses, the introduction of legislation for taxis and private hire vehicles in Parliament, and £1million to improve access at seaports.
Wendy Morton, Accessibility Minister, said:
“I am delighted that we will be partnering with Scope to develop a charter for disabled passengers that will help boost confidence across our road and rail network.”
“This practical guide will pull together disabled passengers' rights so they understand how they can get from A to B with the dignity and ease they deserve.”
Scope research suggests that passengers who travel often, encounter a multitude of documents concerning their rights, and can be unclear. Working on this feedback, the charter will now bring together existing information for passengers focusing it into one coherent and easy-to-use format.
Once the Disabled Persons Passenger Charter is complete, it will be published online, creating an all-inclusive facility for passenger rights and complaints procedures.
Mark Hodgkinson, Scope Chief Executive, said:
“We are delighted to work with the Department for Transport to develop a Passenger Charter. Thousands of Scope supporters have backed calls for this vital step towards transforming a system that sometimes makes travel unnecessarily hard, if not impossible if you are disabled.”
“Public transport should be accessible for everyone and this charter will help disabled passengers better understand their rights, the standards they should expect across the network and how to hold providers to account when travel goes wrong.”
As part of the Government's pledge to build back fairer, the 10th of January saw the update of its ‘Use of tactile paving surfaces' and ‘Guide to best practice on access to pedestrian and transport infrastructure'. The guidance has been changed following research alongside stakeholder engagement to feature the very latest standards.
The charter will work towards the building of accessible pedestrian and transport infrastructure whilst ensuring that public spaces are open to all.
The government is committed to transforming the transport network, making it more inclusive and bringing easier travel for disabled people. The 10th of January 2022 also saw the first “evaluation report of progress against our Inclusive Transport Strategy” published which incorporates evidence provided by disabled people on their transport experiences. This important report will help put future changes in place and create a fairer system for everyone.
