From the sister (Erica Foster) of her disabled brother (Keith Lunn) about his trials and tribulations with TFL.
“My name is Erica Foster, I support my brother Keith Lunn who is a wheelchair user based in Edgware. Keith has a freedom pass and uses public services to get around as he does not drive. He continually experiences problems with being able to access the buses within the London area in particular Metro Line which he finds extremely upsetting and inconvenient. Keith has autism and is not able to follow TFLs procedures for reporting the problems he encounters. Therefore, in July 2022 I asked Keith to report to me the specific problems he was encountering, I then reported these problems though the TFL website. I have found that since I have been doing this the problem appears to be a lot worse than I would have expected. Since July 2022 my records show that Keith, a vunrable adult has been left behind because of faulty ramps 29 times to date.
The fire brigade has been called out twice in this time to get him off of the bus where the ramp could not be deployed to allow him to exit. Each incident Keith has reported to me has been reported in full to TFL, I can provide all of the reference numbers for these complaints so as they can be verified.
Each complaint gets acknowledged with the stock apology, along with TFLs concern about the bad experience . This is usually supported with information as to what should be happening. I am informed that all buses are checked before they are put into service, all incidents during service are reported, and that buses with faulty ramps are removed from service for repair. It is our strong belief that this is not happening!
I have a reported examples of the same bus operating with a faulty ramp in service on the 11th and 20th Dec 2022. I have had a lengthy telephone call with a senior member of TFL staff about the ongoing issues. I have written to the mayor of London highlighting the problems Keith has encountered along with my personal concerns about the regularity of encountering buses with faulty ramps. The response being that my letter along with the issues raised would be forwarded to TFL. Again, I received an apology and an assurance that the bus companies are adhering to their policies in relation to checking and maintaining their vehicles. The issue goes around and around, but Keith’s experiences remain the same!
On the 9th June 2023 I accompanied my brother to a hospital appointment, during the course of the day we had to catch four buses, we were unable to access one bus that day due to a faulty ramp that would not deploy. The second bus had a faulty ramp that struggled to deploy and then would not dock. I witnessed the driver pushing and kicking the ramp to try to get it to dock before we could depart . Single piece ramps are a common occurrence and do not get reported unless the incline to too steep to enable the wheelchair user to access the bus. This is a too common a situation that is totally unacceptable under disability equality legislation.
I would like to know what checks and measures are in place to ensure that the bus companies are complying with the regulations that are in place.”
Has anything like this happened to you?