Imagine if before every journey you had to give 48 hours notice to do it. That's the reality for disabled people across many countries. Wanna take a train? Gotta book the assistance 24-48 hours in advance. Relative gone into hospital and you need to go see them? Tough, should have planned in advance.
This is why I am so vocal about level access trains and working lifts. If we design accessibility into our infrastructure, it becomes more useful to more people.
Moof! 🏳️🌈🔜TramWM (@moof@cupoftea.social)
TIL that the assistance service at Barcelona-Sants station is only available if prebooked 48h in advance, because they allocate staff each day based on the requested demand. This means that if you have disabilities that don’t allow you to prebook this assistance, or you were unaware that it needed rebooking separately when a reservation changes (as was the case with a family member today), then assistance will most likely not be available. I’ve used this service before in airports, where generally they expect a number of last minute additions and will help you even if not prebooked. And of course, the security policy at the station means I cannot accompany my elderly family member to the train and help them settle in, the way I could in France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, or any other sensible country.