Have you ever wondered how easy it is to navigate a partially sighted asthmatic with child abuse trauma, stiff joints, severe muscle pain, chronic fatigue and a kidney infection through London's tube network? Oddly enough, I haven't. Given that our journey to a wedding a couple of weeks ago involved going from South of London (where we live) to North of London (where the wedding was' – duh!) it isn't a question I have to ask myself any more.

Travelling by train as a partially sighted person is a nightmare. R faces two issues: she can't see on the right hand side, and she can't really judge depth. The former is just a problem navigating crowds, but the latter really starts to be a problem the minute she gets on a train, because no amount of time and money can get trains to arrive adjacent to the platform and at the same height. This means that she needs to be helped on and off every train because otherwise she runs the ludicrously real risk of falling down a (sometimes huge) gap between the train and the platform. Oh, on top of this she can't really move her neck joints, so tilting her head backwards to, say, read an LED display telling her when a train is due, is not something she can manage.

Bearing all this in mind it's really no surprise that R hasn't had much confidence with train journeys since her sight deteriorated. But the fun really starts when we get to London. Off the train and through the turnstile presents no new problems but then we have to go down the escalators. London Mayor Boris Johnson recently made cuts that left large numbers of London Tube Stations without staff. So how a partially sighted person gets on an escalator (when they can't judge when the edge of the escalator starts) without help when there are no staff members to summon for assistance is beyond me. I have absolutely no clue how you would cope if you were, say, wheelchair bound. I mean I know I've seen lifts alluded to at some of the stations, but R is certainly never going to find those without help.

So you've blundered around the station and found your way down to the correct platform. All of this without any help from the staff because, potentially, there aren't any. Now all you have to deal with is the passengers. I would, ideally, have stood next to R on the escalator so that I could support and guide her. You're not allowed to do that, the left hand side is supposed to be a fast lane for those who are in a hurry, which is everyone in London. I don't have a problem with that, and I can guide from in front. That is allowing for the one occasion when I got so side-tracked trying to work out which platform we were aiming for that I forgot to tell R when the escalator reached floor level. Consequently she had to guess, jumped and jarred her ankle. Now, though, it is time to get on your tube train and find your disabled person a seat. Well we were lucky, much to my surprise, because the train wasn't as crowded as I'd expected, so we found two seats next to each other. Clearly, I discovered, we had been fortunate not to rely on people respecting the priority seating.

Two women across the aisle from us were arguing and, being nosey, I couldn't help listening. Getting past the exchange which I can't really record here because it wouldn't get past the profanity filter (no you go away), it seems the debate was about the younger woman allowing her son to sit in a priority seat. 'It's for pregnant women and children' she argued. Well, it wasn't. The sign (behind the boy's head) said the seat was for pregnant women, the disabled and those with impaired mobility. The kid was perfectly old enough to stand and walk, but the woman either assumed it was for him without looking, or else she just didn't care. Either way, don't bank on getting a seat, however much you need it after hobbling down the escalator and being buffeted through the crowds.

And this is London. Supposedly England's showpiece city. Tourist Central. So imagine you were a visiting disabled person trying to get around one of the City's most prominent and famous transport networks. Can we get it sorted out, please?

benjaminpmoore

15.09.14 Front Page

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