Just wondered if anyone else experiences similar issues.
I am a carer for my husband who uses a wheelchair due to MS and uncontrolled epilepsy. We mainly use the bus.
Does anyone know how many wheelchairs a bus can take.
We have been on a bus with 2 wheelchairs before but lately we have had to wait for the next bus as there is already a wheelchair on and we have been told its one wheelchair per bus.
Struggling to contact the local bus company and cant really find anything specific online.
My takeaway - there’s space for 1 max 2 wheelchairs, you can be refused transport because the driver may - without real effort or thought- say more than 1 wheelchair is unsafe etc BUT operators train drivers to help people in and out of wheelchairs. Playing devils advocate if you read carefully the driver can say 'I wasn’t trained to be ““Staff who are directly involved in assisting people with disabilities or restricted mobility””
Sorry! I’d hoped to arm you with info but it’s bit weak! You could make a complaint using the link tho!
I would suggest that there is usually local transport services - @selinakylie was there a villagelink or town transport mentioned somewhere in Rollcall??
There has to be at least one on a bus. I’d suggest you looked at the company’s website. Make sure you ask the driver for his name or PSV licence number if it happens again.
I suspect they are keeping one space free for pushchairs and shopping trolleys. Though that is just a hunch.
Are all the buses run by the same bus company? Different companies might have different styles of buses.
We don’t travel by bus and S doesn’t use a wheelchair so this isn’t an issue we have encountered.
In our area in addition to public buses we have Ring’n’ride buses and they are used by those in wheelchairs, mobility issues and people with learning difficulties. Does such a scheme operate in your area? https://www.ringandride.org
On a public bus it is only supposed to be one for safety reasons and sometimes it down to the driver to decide to take more than one. Apart from different types of buses are running on the road, there should be more done for people with mobility issue’s as they go out of the way for pushchairs. It also doesn’t help that bus companys are cutting service’s due to cost.