Back to the bad old days

SHEFFIELD trams and the city's train station must be made easier for disabled passengers to use, a leading expert has warned. Design adviser John Mitchell, who is blind, says he is more dependent on other people now than he used to be in "the bad old days" of public transport.

He says the Supertram is badly designed because it has hard-to-negotiate steps in its carriages, and says the refurbished Midland train station fails to take account of the blind. John, aged 69, from Myers Grove Lane, Loxley, Sheffield, says improving disabled access would benefit both companies and the public.

"It's the only tram system I know that has steps in it," John said. I'm more dependent now on other people than I was in the bad old days."

But John said the new access arrangements outside Sheffield Town Hall were a good example of what can happen when disabled people are consulted. He said: "The ramp outside the Town Hall is a major example where the council has listened and we have worked together. "The design of the Transport Interchange is also much improved."

Stagecoach Supertram commercial manager Julia Shaw said steps inside Sheffield trams were unavoidable. "But we have launched a new project with new trams and we have invited disabled people to tell us what we should consider."

And Sheffield train station is far more accessible than it used to be, according to Midland Mainline communications officer Emma Knight. "The station has been designed to be compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act," she said.

John will address the Inclusive Design Symposium at the Ergonomics Society annual conference in Cambridge today until Thursday, and disabled people from Sheffield will play a big part, he says. "For the first time disabled people are telling researchers and planners what their plans are like for them, not just the planners observing disabled people," he said.