Doug Paulley's blog

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Arriva’s Conditions of Carriage

Posted on by Doug Paulley

Compare and contrast:

Arriva’s Conditions of Carriage from August 2013 to December 2016:

The driver can require that pushchairs and all types of buggies are folded at busy times, or to request occupants of the designated area to move elsewhere on the vehicle if a customer wishes to board with a wheelchair or scooter. You should co-operate in allowing proper use of this space by vacating it if necessary in favour of a wheelchair or scooter user.

and Arriva’s Conditions of Carriage as of January 2017:

The low floor area on our vehicles generally has a shared bay for the carriage of either one wheelchair or scooter or up to two unfolded pushchairs. Some buses have a separate pushchair bay. We accept unfolded pushchairs on buses that have a shared bay only if it is not already occupied by a wheelchair user or mobility scooter. If a wheelchair or scooter user wishes to board, you are required to fold your pushchair and stow it in the luggage facilities on the vehicle. A wheelchair or mobility scooter cannot be accepted if the vehicle is full.

The change from request to require may be semantic, and the proof is in the pudding as it were. But this is particularly relevant as regards Arriva, because a very similar legal case against Arriva lost. I think that Arriva should apologise to the disabled people who it defeated in that case and compensate them handsomely, but that’s not the way the world works, sadly.