
5 May 2017
RMT Press Office:
Glasgow protest Monday in support of disabled people’s access to rail travel.
RAIL UNION RMT and Disabled People Against Cuts Glasgow will be protesting on Monday for the rights of disabled people to have a fully accessible and safe rail service.
There will be joint protests and leafleting on Monday 8th May 2017 outside Glasgow Central Station at 14:00 hours and outside Glasgow Queen Street Station at 16:00 hours.
Parliamentary answers in 2016 revealed that 214 of Scotrail’s 346 stations are unstaffed, over 30,000 trains currently run as Driver Only Operated trains and nearly two thirds of stations have no staff available at all.
RMT also produced figures in July 2016 to show that the annual number of ScotRail services that went into service from April 2015 onwards, without a second member of staff on board when there should have been one present, was running at anything from 5,700 to 7,300 a year.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“Consistently RMT has asked what happens to a disabled person trying to access or exit a train, at an unstaffed station with only the driver on board?
“How can disabled people in Scotland really travel unobstructed if the support and staff necessary to access rail travel services are not available? Will they even want to try and attempt a journey if there is no guarantee of being able to get on off the train?
“The message we will be sending out is that disabled people should be able to travel without discrimination and for that to happen both trains and stations needs to be properly staffed.”
Ends