Ok, here's a dilemma.
Most journeys on route C offer low-floor buses and we have a small number of regular wheelchair users.
Because of scheduling constraints and/or capacity issues, a small number of journeys use double deckers which are step entrance vehicles, not accessible to wheelchairs. Obviously we aspire to a 100% low-floor fleet one day, but we are not there yet.
Two such journeys - the 1715 and 1815 C1 from Eastleigh - always feature double deckers.
One day last week, Karl was about to pull his double decker on to the stand to do the 1815 - his last trip - when he noticed that one of our regular wheelchair users was waiting.
At his own initiative (but with my knowledge and consent), he "borrowed" a low-floor single decker from another running line that happened to be laying over on break in the bus station at the time, operated his C1 with this bus, conveying the wheelchair user safely home in the process. At the end of his trip, he went out of his way and stayed beyond his finish time to return the low-floor to the driver who was supposed to have it, reclaim his double decker and head back to the depot.
Today, Taz was about to operate the 1715 - also with a double decker - when he noticed the same wheelchair user waiting. Unfortunately, we did not have a low-floor available at the time - they were all out in service - otherwise he would have gone out of his way to get hold of one to operate this service with.
On the one hand, this is all very admirable. And if these were journeys that normally had low-floor buses but for one reason or another had had to be replaced with step-entrance buses, I would be leading the charge to make sure we got this guy home.
However, as I said before these journeys never feature low-floor buses.
So the question is this. Are my staff justified in putting this amount of effort into finding low-floor buses when they see this guy waiting to travel on a journey which is not scheduled to be accessible, bearing in mind that there is a reason why they are scheduled this way and therefore our ability to help him will depend more on good fortune in having a spare vehicle available, and very often we won't.
Or should we be managing his expectations by explaining to him that we can't reorganise ourselves in this way every time we see him waiting to travel, and therefore 'stick to our guns' and require him (or any other customer requiring an accessible vehicle) to limit his travel choices to the journeys that we know should be low-floor, but in doing so risk disappointing a regular customer when in fact we know that on some occasions we will be able to help him?
Clearly the drivers want to help him and it is hard to tell them that they shouldn't, but if he becomes accustomed to the idea that this will happen on his behalf, will he start to expect it as routine?
As a side issue, there is an argument for giving better information in our publicity about which journeys are and are not accessible, and I intend to add this to the website in the near future. However, this customer is a regular and our schedules are very repetitive so it is not hard to work out (or indeed obtain via a simple enquiry) which journeys are not wheelchair accessible.
An interesting dilemma, I think.
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11 comments:
The 1715 presumably because of college-day loadings on the earlier Barton Peverell journey...the 1815 something to do with high loadings off Thornden in the afternoons?
Why not come clean on your publicity and say it's generally a low floor route except where marked, then highlight the non-low floor journeys? (Usual disclaimer in small print about substiuting another vehicle if it avoids losing a journey)
Get the wording right and you could throw a favourable spin on it...
Indeed, the 1715 runs off the Barton Peveril journey. The 1815 is more to do with obscure scheduling requirements (very production-led, sorry to say, but the equivalent 1820 in the new timetable will be low-floor).
I thought I'd made clear that improved publicity was part of the plan in any case.
The question is, what to do when a regular customer who happens to be in a wheelchair, turns up for a scheduled non-accessible trip. I don't happen to believe that improved publicity will stop this happening, even if it does reduce the number of such occasions.
Are buses not starting to run back in by about 5pm? If so, could some reallocation be done to ensure the low floor fleet are out there as much as possible, and it is the step entrance vehicles that have the earliest run in time?
At least that way you are doing everything you can.
I do feel though that the fact that last minute vehicle changes have been done already may have rather opened a can of worms wth this, and indeed any other, disabled passenger.
NX operate a wheelchair booking system. Could you ask your regular wheelchair users to notify you of times/ routes so you can schedule accessible buses for them?
Stagecoach South Controllers have authority to order a taxi for wheelchair users if a service advertised as low floor is not operated by such a vehicle, and no alternative is available within (I think) 10 minutes. This is fair and reasonable I think - if we advertise a wheelcahir accessible service and cannot provide it then we must amke alternative arrangements.
When there are journeys which are not accessible, then I think that the wheelchair user needs to be told that the journey concerned is not scheduled to be available to them, and that you cannot make special arrangements - as you say it is laudable to try and do so, but realistically it will always come back and bite you. Better to educate the user and guarantee (as best you can) most of the service than make bus changes on an ad hoc basis in an attempt to provide an 'extra' service which as you say will then be expected as the norm.
@Venturer: Sounds like a good policy to me!
@Mark: We do try to get the step entrance buses in earliest, and will do a better job of this in the 1st November schedule, but our priority is to run a punctual, reliable peak-time service as the majority of commuters are highly time-sensitive but not so concerned about accessibility.
So just to give one example, the C1 will normally be a low-floor leaving Eastleigh at 20 past each hour, but we do not consider that we can rely on the 1620 always getting back in time for the 1720, so instead that bus will drop back on to the 1740 C1. The only bus that we can get to Eastleigh in time for 1720 is the double decker that runs off the 1600 C3 (which needs to be a decker for capacity reasons). So the 1720 has to be step-entrance. But then the 1820, 1920 and all subsequent journeys will be accessible.
Likewise, you might look at the C3 and think that it's the same bus leaving on the hour each hour, but not so. After the 1600 runs on to the 1720 C1, the 1700 C3 will be a low-floor coming off the 611 college run, but again we do not think we can rely on this to get back for the 1800, so this bus will actually form the 1820 C1, with another low-floor off the 618 college run appearing to form the 1800 C3.
And so on and so forth..... ;o)
Phil, do u one day in the future, think u will have the finance for some 2nd hand low floor double deckers, . I know in the current economic climate things are bad, but ur company seems to be going from strength to strength.
Can the wheel chair not fit down the isle of the Double decker ?
If it can why not purchase a ramp and put it on the bus with the passenger ?
There is no way a standard older double decker will accommodate a wheelchair. Even if you could get it in the bus, where would it go once the passenger is on the bus?
Phil,
Before September, Stagecoach had the same issue as you on the route 20. There were two journies a day that were high floor, the rest were low floor. So in the timetable, they made it clear that those two journies would not be low floor.
And I note you don't have timetable cases at every bus stop. So why not kill two birds with one stone and do both?
...and also please keep the blog reguarly updated :-)
Phil - An interesting dilemma indeed. Have you thought about interworking your vehicles advertising positively the "specific journeys" that will feature low floor vehicles ?
This way any wheelchair user has "advanced" knowledge of which journey they would catch where the bus was guaranteed to be wheelchair accessible !
Sure you need to elect decker
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