When speaking up is the right thing to do

As some of you may have noticed I have been following and interacting with a lot of various charities and causes. Well today thanks to one of them I ended up having for want of a better way to word it good moan, However this time I think it was for the greater good rather than a pity me.

The moan was aimed at the travel network, something that is available or supposedly available to all. However of the summer with my ailments, and travelling with my older parent, it is becoming more and more apparent, it is only any good if you have full mobility regardless of age and gender. Some of the newer the lines on the train and tube lines are more accessible, or have options to be able to travel on. But it is the mainline stations particularly in my borough are limited, My two local train stations are impossible to use to get a train to London unless you can use steep steps, which means taking a walk and bus to one of the other stations of which there only two that are fully accessible. This isn't limited to being on crutches or a wheel chair, but if you are a little unstable on your feet. It doesn't stop there Clapham Junction, which is the main change if you want to get to Waterloo or Earls Court maybe have facilities to change platform but getting on or off the train involves up to a 1/2 foot different between train and platform. I would love to say it is this isolated places, but I found New Cross Gate is in the same way and that is one of the two main stations servicing Greenwich Park for the Olympics, and after my moan I have heard I am not alone.

I wasn't planning on naming and shaming these stations, until I realised it isn't me being difficult, this is a genuine problem for every one using the network. Even parents with buggies are struggling getting on and off the trains or even on to the platforms. The problems don't stop there, how many times have you got on a train or tube and seen a perfectly able human sitting in the priority seats, I have lost count, before I had crutches I used to have rows over it, and I thought it would improve now I have them. Was I wrong or what? on the DLR I stood half the journey because the city bankers wouldn't acknowledge me let alone move from their seats. I am still in the process of being processed in the great benefit system, so I can't get a blue badge or the priority seat card that means I can evicted these people from those seats, but does that make me any less worthy. Well TFL and the main travel network does. So what am I meant to do ? sit and home and do nothing until I am fully registered? and what if the system deems I don't need any help? does that mean I am confined to my house reliant on family and friends to go anyway, and suffer what ever ridicule and pain travelling may cause.

I don't know what the answer to these questions are, or if there is ever going to be a solution suitable to all, but at least I have spoken out and told those who asked. Maybe some day transport will work for all. In the mean time I am not going to be very happy if they decide to raise their prices and make more profit before addressing this.