Clearly the zimmer frame scenario is totally unreasonable and shows a complete failure of common sense. What possible reason could there be for these being prohibited?
The wheelchair situation is clearly a complex and difficult one for everyone concerned.
I suppose the crew (and passengers) had seen you sitting in a seat and transferring back to your wheelchair. When confronted with someone wishing to board who was completely confined to a chair a train manager surmised that this person had a greater need, hence asking you to move. I'm not saying that is right but I'm sure you can see why they went down that path. As you say train crew are not doctors but they are faced with having to try and accommodate passengers with a wide range of disabilities with no notice and very limited time to do so.
Perhaps a better solution would have been for the second wheelchair to have been boarded at a different part of the train - surely VTEC HST and 91 sets have more than one area for wheelchairs to be accomodated? Or was this already occupied?
How was the second wheelchair passenger accommodated given that you refused to move?
It probably is better to try and reserve the area in advance, if at all possible, to try and avoid this type of scenario occurring again.
It was an XC Voyager. This is why I rarely travel with XC- I travel a lot to and from NCL but I always go with VTEC for this reason. In this case I was attending an event in Birmingham so had no choice but to use XC. The train was full and standing, there were no seats available so had I been made to vacate my wheelchair then I would have been forced to stand.
And that isn’t happening- I might not be wheelchair bound (thank god) but my legs are such that they won’t hold me up for extended periods of time and I would have been crying in agony after about five minutes.
XC would not allow me to reserve the wheelchair space! I was asked when I rang was I permanently confined to a wheelchair and I said no, and I was told I would be expected to transfer. I have queried this before and was told their policy is such that those who can transfer would be expected to and I questioned what happens if that person refuses as the train staff are in no position to judge who can and can’t transfer.
I transferred back to my chair as I also have complex mental health problems and I was becoming increasingly anxious about the fact the seat I was in was very hemmed in. I felt much safer in my own wheelchair as the space is much more open. I don’t like having to justify my conditions as they’re extremely complex (some of them are difficult for my consultants to get their heads round!) and how they affect me is unpredictable. Short of carrying a card that says ‘I have invisible disabilities and I also get distressed very easily due to behavioural/emotional difficulties’ there’s not much more I can do really.
The other passenger was only going one stop anyway so he just remained in the foyer of the train.
My walker isn’t a Zimmer frame- it’s a wheeled walker which doubles up as a wheelchair. XC claimed ‘it would block the aisle’ (it didn’t) and priority seats (on the Turbostar trains, the ones that fold) are only for ‘wheelchair users’ so as my walker didn’t fold I shouldn’t be sitting there.
For the best failure of common sense they also said my crutches would be prohibited too as ‘bariatric crutches take up too much space’ (they aren’t bariatric crutches by the way, they’re bog standard ones I bought from Argos, bear in mind this is the Stansted Airport services where people travel with large cases! I explained that I can’t fit in one of the standard priority seats on the Turbostar trains as I am obese- although I have now lost quite a lot of weight- and my crutches and me don’t fit into one of them so they made the assumption I have bariatric crutches! They did however apologise and say that was a huge mistake and my crutches aren’t an issue)