A young wheelchair user, who had what he described as an ”awful experience” when he was shouted at and blamed for delaying the departure of a train he was boarding in Dublin late last month, says he is “sick of being treated like a second-class citizen”.
Conor McCauley, who was travelling to his home 40km from the city, had told a staff member what train he was taking and asked which platform he should go to, but “no one showed up with the ramp when it was time to board”.
His friend approached another staff member who, he says, “got off the train and started yelling at me, telling me to make sure a staff member comes with me next time. [He] accused me of holding up the whole train,” Mr McCauley says.
“He got the ramp off the train, then roughly pushed me literally on to the train by my back and continued making a scene.”
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Mr McCauley subsequently overheard the same employee in conversation with someone “loudly asking who I had informed, and stressed again that someone should have come with me, while blaming me for delaying the train for everyone else. I’m so sick and tired of being treated like a second-class citizen,” Mr McCauley says.
He stresses that the vast majority of staff “are lovely to me”.
However, there are systemic problems for wheelchair users on public transport, he says. He tries not to use the station closest to his home “because there’s been incidents in the past where I’ve booked assistance from people who haven’t shown up”.
He also expresses concern that an hour’s notice of his travel plans has to be given at main stations, stretching to 24 hours’ notice for smaller stations.
“I don’t think able-bodied people would be happy if they had to give 24 hours in advance or one hour in advance for certain stations,” he says, adding that the Government “really has a part to play as well. It is not all Irish Rail’s fault and they are not funded to the level that they should be funded”.
He points out the State has failed to ratify international protocols that would mandate public transport be made accessible to everyone.
In response to his experience, Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny said the way Mr McCauley had been treated was now the “subject of an internal investigation. The incident as described is totally unacceptable, and we apologise for the distress caused”.
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