A big moan
If you are travelling by train from London Euston to Berkhamsted you must go down about 14 steps and then walk down a steep slope to get out of the station. The line runs at roof-top height.
Berkhamsted station
A big moan
I am disabled and must use my mobility scooter (a Travelscoot) because I cannot walk. The steps make it impossible for me to get out of the station if I am on my own. From the picture of the station you can see that the railway line runs above the arches.
A few weeks ago
A platform that moved up and down the steps had recently been installed. OK it needed a member of the station staff to operate it but it meant I could get any train from London to Berkhamsted and then from the platform to street level easily. Yesterday I had to travel to London, I checked that there would be someone to operate the chair lift when I got back.
The staff in the ticket office said ‘Oh no its broken. Get off at Watford and we will pay for the taxi’ My comments were fairly forthright.
So frustrating
There used to be a chair lift but it was broken so it had to be replaced, this took a couple of years.. The new one has now broken .
Two options
So either get a taxi from Watford or get the slow train from London that terminates at the next station, Tring, it then returns to London stopping at the same stations. The platform at Berkhamsted for the trains travelling to London does not have steps to get to street level. Instead I can get out via the car park so I can use my Travelscoot. Either way it makes the journey about 20 to 30 minutes longer.
To find out about the Travelscoot click here Yes I can fold it up and put it into the boot of a taxi but by this stage I had been on the go for over 7 hours. I just wanted to get home. expend as little energy as possible; my batteries were a bit flat, my balance was worse than squiffy & had run out of oomph.
Why does this sort of thing happen? It makes disability even more frustrating plus it makes me so so cross. Like you had never guessed 🙁
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