Wheelchair user wins damages

A wheelchair user has won a landmark legal action after an
Appeal Court judge ruled that it was unacceptable for disabled
people to be expected to travel an hour out of their way to get to
an inaccessible platform, writes Amy
Taylor.

Lord Justice Sedley said that Central Trains had acted
unlawfully by not paying the cost of the taxi Keith Roads used to
get to the Norwich bound Platform at Thetford Station, Norfolk.

Roads had previously taken the train operator to Norwich county
court for failing to provide disabled access to the platform, but
the case was dismissed in March this year.

However, this week Lord Justice Sedley said that the
operators’ solution for disabled users to gain access to the
Eastbound platform – by going an hour in the wrong direction
to Ely station in Cambridgeshire and changing platforms there –
could not be called a “reasonable alternative”.

Instead, he ruled that Roads’ taxi solution was more
reasonable provided the company was given proper notice.

Sedley overturned the county court’s decision and awarded
Roads £1, 097 in damages.