Even though the importance of accessibility in society and the railway system is recognized by most, the progress of making the railways more accessible is a slow one, facing a number of challenges.

Stepping distance between the vehicle and platform

One of the accessibility challenges that passengers face while travelling and the railway sector needs to solve is the stepping distance between the vehicle and platform. As long as there is a gap, either vertical or horizontal, there will be a barrier in our railway systems creating a hinder to level access and therefore accessibility.

There are issues related to these barriers both within the respective member states and between member states.

Based on European requirements, many infrastructure managers have a strategy for a specific platform height within their network, constructing them uniformly to be either 550 or 760 mm high, so that the trains can be adjusted to provide level access or a uniform other solution to facilitate smooth boarding. However, a lot of the platforms are part of the legacy railway system and have therefore been built with different and usually lower platform heights, creating a step when boarding or exiting the train. Some infrastructure managers have come quite far in adjusting their network to have only one platform height, while others haven’t come as far.

Unfortunately, even if the member states adjust their entire network to a specific platform height, as long as different heights are chosen across Europe, passengers will face the barrier of stepping distance when crossing borders with a train.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed in coordination with the operators and the progress needs to happen synchronously since both stations and rolling stock are part of the same system that passengers need access to.

Interpretation of the requirements

We also see challenges in the interpretation of the requirements in TSI PRM, both between IMs and between IMs and the verification entity (NoBo). The interpretation discussions often end in sector discussions which is inefficient and time-consuming. Even though the PRM requirements are not particularly complicated or technical, ²their interpretation still causes great difficulties.

As an example, there is a requirement regarding the visual information for train departures to be placed at a height of a maximum of 160 cm at least one place in the station. The requirement is intended for people with visual impairment who have vision on a very short distance only. The problem is the wording “maximum” which has led to the interpretation that the frame of the information shall be at a maximum of 160 cm. This leads to signs and the relevant content being placed too low for anyone to read and the requirement is therefore not fulfilling its purpose.

Move the “accessibility to stations” requirements from TSI PRM to another European legislation related to the accessibility of the built environment

TSI PRM has raised awareness about accessibility issues at railway stations and regulate how to construct accessible railway stations. Accessibility in many cases means the same for other transport modes, public libraries and other public areas. Several requirements regarding “accessibility to stations” such as requirements on handrails or contrast markings should be covered in another European legislation related to accessibility, as these requirements are not in the scope of interoperability and make a special regulation for railways.

There are also several standards related to this topic, such as standards for accessible railway stations and nearly the same standards for the rest of the society regarding accessibility. It causes confusion when several different regulatory and standardisation documents are containing the same or similar requirements, with circular references to one another. This causes uncertainty and extra costs for infrastructure managers.

Accessibility requirements need to be simply “requirements”

We can also see there is work to be done in making the accessibility requirements not being seen as “special requirements”. The first TSI PRM was published in 2008 and addressed technical specifications relating to accessibility for persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility. Now 13 years later we need to shift focus from “accessibility requirements” to simply “requirements”. In the same way, we are talking about “the new normal” after the pandemic, the new normal for accessibility requirements or requirements for persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility is simply; requirements for the built environment.

Persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility have the exact same needs as everyone else and an accessible environment benefits all passengers.

Ellinor Nyberg, chairwoman of EIM PRM Working Group

Watch the video to learn about accessibility challenges in the railways 👉 https://youtu.be/KvW2_l830a4