Matthew Campbell-Hill highlights role of roadside infrastructure amid call for compliance
Newly appointed Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) Chair, Matthew Campbell-Hill, has highlighted the main accessibility issues faced by passengers with disabilities when travelling on coaches, underlining his own view that all coaches should ultimately comply with PSVAR regardless of use case.
Criticising accessibility as being treated as a “last minute addition with awkward compromises”, Mr Campbell-Hill believes that coach companies need to invest in new vehicles, provide more staff training, and engage with local groups of disabled people.
He has also highlighted the role of roadside infrastructure in the accessibility debate, stressing that stops, stations and pick-up points need space for lifts to be deployed.
He adds that disability awareness training, including training involving disabled people, is vital for coach companies to ensure their staff are properly trained to assist passengers with disabilities.
His comments come ahead of the upcoming government review into the Regulations, due for publication before the end of the year. Mr Campbell-Hill has emphasised his
dissatisfaction with them as they stand, and that the guidelines for accessibility on coaches needs to be updated and strengthened to achieve the level of inclusive service offered by low-floor buses.
“PSVAR has resulted in significant access improvements, but hasn’t achieved the level of inclusive access offered by low-floor buses,” he says. “There have been lots of lessons learned over the past 20 years and we hope that the outcome will be Regulations which work better for disabled people and the industry.”
