[Zurück]

B. Schmutz:
"Improvement of North American Rail Accessibility";
Vortrag: International Conference on Traffic and Transport Engineering (ICTTE) 2018, Belgrad; 27.09.2018 - 28.09.2018; in: "ICTTE Belgrade 2018 - Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Traffic and Transport Engineering", S. Zezelj (Hrg.); (2018), ISBN: 9788691615345; Paper-Nr. 55, 8 S.

For persons with reduced mobility in North America, there are many obstacles to the use of the existing railway infrastructure. These obstacles range from railroad platforms to non-accessible wagons. In order to enable access to the operator's existing offers, various solutions have to be identified. In addition to the classic technical answers, the aim is to show how an organized assistance system improves accessibility to trains. The services are intended to meet the requirements and wishes of customers and enable people who were previously excluded from using the railway to use it. In addition to the customer's wishes, the requirements and resources of the transport company must be taken into account. An online survey was conducted in Canada and the USA to determine the prevailing wishes and current problems of customers in North America. In it, the existing challenges of using the trains were asked about the limitations, ranging from mobility aids to prams, which customers have and which solutions they would prefer. The vast majority of those questioned consider the suggestion of support from a railway employee to be very helpful.
Most of the technical support facilities are also rated positively. To clarify how existing systems are structured and which services are offered, a detailed benchmark of these systems is carried out. The services range from simple operation of the platform lift to comprehensive support through the station and customer care during every phase of the journey. To this end, railway companies from Europe and Australia are compared with each other. Based on the wishes of customers and the benchmark carried out, compact recommendations for action are developed for the Canadian railway operator VIA Rail. The starting point of these recommendations is a route chain analysis with the corresponding different scenarios. Based on the benchmark, a maximum variant is developed that covers all customer wishes. This corresponds to a customer-oriented solution, which is accompanied by large financial expenditures. In addition to the maximum variant, a catalogue of requirements with minimum requirements for an assistance system is listed.

rail accessibility, PRM, costumer´s need