My Visit To Brighton On A Train with a Mobility Scooter
- Rarars adventures
- Sep 30, 2021
- 3 min read
Hello, welcome back, so I wanted to share about my visit to Brighton with a mobility scooter.
Now the reason I wanted to share this with you is I have not been on a train in years, never mind with a Mobility Scooter, the reason being is because I normally go by bus or car.
But this time was a little different, firstly I haven't been to Brighton in years and secondly, it was my cousins birthday and she wanted to go shopping in Brightion and I was invited to go Lovely thought ,but then I was thinking how am I going to manage a day in Brighton walking around all day this is something that I'm unable to do anymore due to my disabilitys, so this is when I was talking to my husband and we thought about hiring a mobility scooter, but because I haven't been on a train in years and never with a scooter, it made me quite anxious not knowing if you could take a scooter but more how does it all work, so I decided to visit my local train station to find out more information, I was surprised when I visited I explain what I was doing and that I needed to take a scooter and the member explained that as long as it was with-in the size requirements there wouldn't be any problems, also gave me one of the booklets with more information which I will leave a link for as it has quite a bit of helpful information in.
I didn't need to prebook my train ticket, just needed to turn up.
The Day Of Our Visit
The morning of going to Brighton, I met my Cousin at the shop mobility where I was hiring the mobility scooter and then we made our way down to the station.
I brought my ticket and also explained that I had the scooter which they were fine about, then we made our way to the platform, to get on the train, we would need to change at one-stop, which for me was worrying because I've never done this before and I will admit I was really anxious at this point.
As we were waiting, a member of staff came up to us to ask if we were getting on the next train, we said that we were and they were really nice, they said to follow them up the platform as this is where we would need to get on, and they got the ramps out ready.
As the train arrived and stopped they got the ramps on so I was able to line myself up and get on the train I was able to park myself in the disabled seating area and they radioed to our next stop to let them know we were coming, all the staff where patience and didn't rush me and were helpful. we didn't have any problems, on our way home we didn't have a clue what train we needed and it was really busy, we ended up asking a member of staff and they showed us where we needed to be but also waited with us with the ramps which I thought was really good as well.
End Of Day
I have to say at the start of this I was dreading it I was really panicky and anxious but the staff were really good, a massive thank you to them, and we had a really nice day shopping too. I thought it was important to share this with you, I don't think I'm alone in thinking in the way I did at the start, Who to contact? What would it be like? what if a ramp falls and you fall off? which is what was going through my head, but the ramps don't move, and you're not going to fall off, they do guide you if needed, so all that worry was for nothing, what a relief.
So I wanted to share my experience with you so, if this is something that you have been thinking about, or put off because of the same reasons as me, that it's ok to feel this way, but it really isn't too bad and I would happily do it again. I hope this will help someone out there to go and try it for themselves.
I would also love to hear about your experience as well, please feel free to leave a comment below or email.
thank you for reading I have left the links down below for the (Making rail accessible) information booklet and website.
Links
Southern
tel; 08001381016
ThamesLink
08000582844
Rail Ombudsman
Website railombudsman.org
03300940362
