By Birger Agergaard

The EU is putting on the pressure for achieving improved accessibility: 130 million people to benefit.

This Swiss double-deck train is running as an experiment in Denmark, giving grade-separated access to the train at most stations.

The EU Commission has just received a set of guidelines on how European train passengers can benefit from better access conditions, in the form of the final report from the EU working party dealing with passenger transit by train, which goes by the acronym of COST 335.

The recommendations and examples of good practice and design will not only show the Commission how to go about taking different steps towards a co-ordinated effort, but also stimulate the governments of the Member States, railway companies and the railway industry to improve accessibility, either individually or jointly.

Since 1996, COST 335 has assessed the possibilities of better access conditions for stations and rolling stock, plus improved information for passengers, dealing with all the phases of a train journey.

Well worth while

As an essential point, the report argues in favour of the financial benefits to be gained from gradually creating accessible train stations and rolling stock. The COST 335 group specifies that an amazingly high number of people stands to benefit from improved accessibility.

Within the next 20 years, the number of people expected to benefit from improved access transport will reach 30 percent of the EU’s population, no less than 130 million people, and one reason is that the number of elderly people is increasing significantly. This figure will also include "the temporarily disabled" and families with prams.

"Although we have not calculated the benefit of making train transport accessible for everyone, it is our over-all belief that if trains and stations are accessible, the demand will increase," points out Hans Christian Kirketerp-Møller from the Danish State Railways (DSB), the Danish representative in COST 335 and co-ordinator of the working party dealing with financial and market conditions.

At the same time, the final report details that, as rolling stock has to be replaced in any case, the additional costs in relation to solutions with good accessibility will be approximately five percent, while the additional costs for accessible stations and platforms will be approximately two percent, although this figure does not include expenses related to lifts.

Differences between countries

The report focuses on both national and cross-border passenger train transport, including high speed trains, while at the same time revealing the very marked differences that exist both between countries and within each individual country. Many stations have stood for 100-150 years and accessibility was simply not on the agenda when they were built.

"The report proposes decreasing the distance between the platform and the train, both vertically and horizontally, but whether this is done more efficiently by altering the height of all platforms or by changing the rolling stock is an issue that divides European opinion. One crucial point in the discussion is the fact that rolling stock has a 20-30 year working life, which would seem to point to this as a longer-term approach to improving the accessibility of rail transport. Nevertheless, it is important that manufacturers and governments pay attention to the issue of accessibility during the planning process," says Kirketerp-Møller.

Europe’s Ministers of Transport have also suggested improved trans-port conditions and drawn up a draft proposal for how to make joint efforts. COST 335 has supported this policy with palpable examples of level-free access, tactile coating, information standards etc. The decision pending at the Commission may be a working tool to aid the ECMT (European Conference of Ministers of Transport) in extracting a commitment from the governments of each of the Members.

These examples include:

• Pre-trip information on Swedish Railways (SJ)
  
  
• The Swedish X-2000 train, where there is a lift mounted on the train
  
  
• Leading-lines from the station at Graz, in Austria
  
  
• Grade-separated access between the platform and the train, e.g. for double-deck trains in Germany and Denmark.

From theory to practice

The EU Commission’s Transport Directorate has already started putting the recommendations into practice, either as addenda to existing Directives or as recommendations to the governments of the Member States.

Ms. Danae Penn, the Directorate’s desk officer for transport for people with reduced mobility, has told ‘Crisp & Clear’ that rolling stock is already today expected to live up to what is termed "interoperability" in a number of ways and that extra technical specifications are now being added to the Directive, for the purpose of including the Design-for-All approach. This is expected to take place within the next 2-3 years, by which time rolling stock manufacturers will be obliged to comply with the instructions, because of their status as EU legislation, she points out.

The height of platforms in EU Member States is also to be adapted to a standard, but not by means of Directives. Instead, the plan provides for the respective governments adopting a long-term goal of trying to apply a common standard, which might be a recommendation of a platform height of 67 centimetres above the rail level. This would ensure grade-separated access for most trains.

"In the long term, there should be no difference in levels, while in the short term, the Member States should make sure that there are lifts on trains; preferably lifts that can be activated by the passengers themselves," says Danae Penn. Over the next 6-9 months, research will be concentrating on establishing which is best qualified lift system.

Facts

COST 335 "Passenger accessibility of heavy rail systems" is the title of the analytical work carried out by four working parties of the COST 335 project. The groups focused on: 1. Physical accessibility to stations and platforms 2. Rolling stock design
3. Information before, during and after the journey 4. Financial and market conditions.

ECMT, The European Conference of Ministers of Transport, or ECMT, has appointed a working party to deal with transport for the disabled. After a ministerial summit in 1998, a guide to good practice was published under the title "Improving Transport for People with Mobility Handicaps".

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 1, April 2000