The Bure Valley Railway runs almost al year round from Aylsham to Wroxham in Norfolk and has to be a great way to see the area. When I first found this through the VisitNorfolk website I was slightly cynical in thinking that there wouldn’t be any facilities for disabled people. However, after a few clicks and a little bit of exploring I found the Disabled Access information page and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only are both of the stations accessible but also the Bure Valley Railway has 6 adapted carriages that can take up to 4 manual wheelchairs each!
Apart from my work with accessible.travel I also started consulting for a new website due to be launched at the start of September which is will provide tourist and daily living information for people with disabilities and seniors in the UK called OpenBritain.
Although the site isn’t yet ready, my work with them has already begun to take me the length and bredth of the country and has allowed me to do a few blog posts for them including a review of the Equal Adventure Festival 09 in Aviemore, Scotland and the Caledonian Sleeper train to London.
Please see below for links to these posts on the OpenBritain Blog:
Please note that the OpenBritain launch date is the 1st September 2009, please come and visit us again to see the full completed site. In the meantime, here’s some OpenBritain News!
I recently attended the Equal Adventure Festival in Scotland on behalf of OpenBritain and part of the adventure was catching a train from Leeds to Aviemore.
I prebooked a one way train ticket to Aviemore and assistance at Leeds City Train Station which cost £69.85 with my Disabled Persons Railcard. When my departure date came around I arrived at Leeds about 15 minutes before the train was due to leave and boarded without a hitch.
The space for wheelchair users on the train is clearly marked and comfirtable including a small table, plug socket and an emergency intercom to be able to speak directly with the driver.
The next part of the adventure was when I arrived at Edinburgh Train Station to find that of the lifts wasn’t in operation due to refurbishment work. I was quickly and effectively loaded and onto a platform vehicle with tank-like tracks for decending the staircase.
The whole experience was great fun and the staff at ScotRail were appropriately trained, helpful and respectful of my dignity. Shortly afterwards I continued my journey to Aviemore without incident where I was met by one of the team from Equal Adventure.
Below: A video of the Edinburgh Station stair decent.
