I think a common theme among railway staff is that we would like better and more frequent training . Its all good and well covering a companies policy on providing assistance whilst training in a role , but 3 or 4 years into that role you might then have never revisited that training .
Also increased staffing which again is just a wish list . Countless times you will see a member of platform staff having to juggle looking after a passenger or passengers requiring assistance , dispatching trains , directing and dealing with other passengers etc etc . Its alright during off peak times , but during peak times it can quickly become unmanageable , and then the person requiring assistance does not get the attention the extra attention they need or can be left feeling like they are an inconvenience . Bigger stations do have dedicated teams which shares the workload in a better way .
In my opinion having a ramp on a train - however it's operated - doesn't improve anything compared to the situation now. Indeed having ramps at every station (about 2,500) is more cost effective and efficient than having one on every train (tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands)
At the same time , ramps left out in all weathers wont last anywhere near as long . This would be the case at many stations because there is nowhere protected from the elements to store ramps and if there are covered locations to store them they might be locked up when staff are not at the station . And in some areas/stations they might be subject to vandalism , I know of when station where a bench on the platform ended up across the running lines ,ramps would potentially end up the same . I would rather guards know before they embark on a journey down a line with unstaffed stations that they definitely do have the equipment to assist a passenger in a wheelchair onto the train .
Also its going to be more than just 1 ramp per station in many cases because of stations with multiple platforms which at the very least is a majority , and in some cases its going to be more than one ramp per platform because there is no standardisation so if multiple stock or tocs call at a station then more than one ramp is needed .