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‘Route For Change’, the Valuing People National Transport Networking Event

was held on 27^th March 2007 at Coventry Transport Museum.

It was organised at Coventry Transport Museum by Routeforward, Coventry’s travel and transport inclusion project.

Natalie Salmon from the Disability Rights Commission told the meeting that disability rights now cover the whole of a journey, from access to information beforehand and during the trip to physical access at stops and terminuses. All trains will have to be accessible by 2017 and all trains by 2020. No non-accessible vehicles are now being built. Unstaffed rail stations should provide assistance when told the day before. Ports and airports in the UK should also be accessible, but trains, boats and planes outside the UK fall outside of our legislation, though new European laws coming up in June this year will make European air travel more accessible. Natalie said individual complaints to companies about access and staff who are untrained or rude in matters relating to disability are a good way forward. If companies are unhelpful the next stage is a complaint to the DRC.

In May and June the DRC is coordinating a series of events aimed at young disabled people under the GOJO logo. The GOJO website launches in May and the GOJO theme will be ‘taking control’.

Christine Eade spoke about Routeforward, set up in Coventry by Dilip Chauhan, and bringing together a large number of organisations from Travel Coventry, the local bus company, through Connexions, the Primary Care Trust to Community Services. The object of the organisation is to make travel easier in Coventry for those who may find it most difficult. They run a fleet of People Carriers, a team of Neighbourhood Travel Planners and travel trainers and do all this on the back of a Ł1.2m grant allocated by the Coventry Partnership.

Angryfish, real name Robin Surgeoner, gave the view of the disability rights activist, who can get impassioned and downright incensed at the well-meaning but slow and sometimes misplaced attempts of organisations to improve accessibility. If people find it difficult to read timetables should we replace them with ones designed around clock symbols?

Denise Maguire and Juliet Solomon, representing the DfT presented the general picture painted by a survey done for the DfT by Paul Beecham Associates. A national trawl found 139 schemes involving travel training, which included everything from travel advice to one-to-one training. They had a detailed look at 23 of these. There will be a ministerial launch of this review later in the year.

Richard Blake spoke about the buddy scheme he has set up in Hertfordshire, funded by a government grant, which enables travel by people with disabilities. Richard emphasises that this is not a training scheme. They plan and carry out one-off trips, be it to the local pub or a foreign airport. They employ five buddies, who have learning difficulties themselves, and two professionals on an equal pay basis.

Liz Eccles from Halcrow gave an overview of the taxi review project they did for Leicester to find out which would be the best black cab taxis to license to cater for people with disabilities. In the course of this it was learned that in Newcastle on Tyne, taxi drivers have to do at least one training session on disability awareness. Coventry will suspend taxi drivers who receive complaints about their treatment of people with disabilities. Some local authorities have English language tests for their taxi drivers, because poor English sets up an extra communication barrier. In Greater Manchester, GMPTE have money-saving travel vouchers, which are redeemable in taxis to supplement their free disability bus passes.

Comments on the meeting will be very welcome.

This website has been funded by the Wigan Transport Partnership
whose aim is to promote greater accessibilty to educational opportunities
for students aged between 16 and 19.

Content Management websites by Backbone Solutions.com



Home	‘Route For Change’, the Valuing People National Transport Networking Event was held on 27^th March 2007 at Coventry Transport Museum. It was organised at Coventry Transport Museum by Routeforward, Coventry’s travel and transport inclusion project. Natalie Salmon from the Disability Rights Commission told the meeting that disability rights now cover the whole of a journey, from access to information beforehand and during the trip to physical access at stops and terminuses. All trains will have to be accessible by 2017 and all trains by 2020. No non-accessible vehicles are now being built. Unstaffed rail stations should provide assistance when told the day before. Ports and airports in the UK should also be accessible, but trains, boats and planes outside the UK fall outside of our legislation, though new European laws coming up in June this year will make European air travel more accessible. Natalie said individual complaints to companies about access and staff who are untrained or rude in matters relating to disability are a good way forward. If companies are unhelpful the next stage is a complaint to the DRC. In May and June the DRC is coordinating a series of events aimed at young disabled people under the GOJO logo. The GOJO website launches in May and the GOJO theme will be ‘taking control’. Christine Eade spoke about Routeforward, set up in Coventry by Dilip Chauhan, and bringing together a large number of organisations from Travel Coventry, the local bus company, through Connexions, the Primary Care Trust to Community Services. The object of the organisation is to make travel easier in Coventry for those who may find it most difficult. They run a fleet of People Carriers, a team of Neighbourhood Travel Planners and travel trainers and do all this on the back of a Ł1.2m grant allocated by the Coventry Partnership. Angryfish, real name Robin Surgeoner, gave the view of the disability rights activist, who can get impassioned and downright incensed at the well-meaning but slow and sometimes misplaced attempts of organisations to improve accessibility. If people find it difficult to read timetables should we replace them with ones designed around clock symbols? Denise Maguire and Juliet Solomon, representing the DfT presented the general picture painted by a survey done for the DfT by Paul Beecham Associates. A national trawl found 139 schemes involving travel training, which included everything from travel advice to one-to-one training. They had a detailed look at 23 of these. There will be a ministerial launch of this review later in the year. Richard Blake spoke about the buddy scheme he has set up in Hertfordshire, funded by a government grant, which enables travel by people with disabilities. Richard emphasises that this is not a training scheme. They plan and carry out one-off trips, be it to the local pub or a foreign airport. They employ five buddies, who have learning difficulties themselves, and two professionals on an equal pay basis. Liz Eccles from Halcrow gave an overview of the taxi review project they did for Leicester to find out which would be the best black cab taxis to license to cater for people with disabilities. In the course of this it was learned that in Newcastle on Tyne, taxi drivers have to do at least one training session on disability awareness. Coventry will suspend taxi drivers who receive complaints about their treatment of people with disabilities. Some local authorities have English language tests for their taxi drivers, because poor English sets up an extra communication barrier. In Greater Manchester, GMPTE have money-saving travel vouchers, which are redeemable in taxis to supplement their free disability bus passes. Comments on the meeting will be very welcome.



This website has been funded by the Wigan Transport Partnership whose aim is to promote greater accessibilty to educational opportunities for students aged between 16 and 19. Content Management websites by Backbone Solutions.com