Making buses accessible to the disabled: ‘State must play its part’

The Scottish firm interested in making a bid for Malta's public transport operation, is suggesting that disabled commuters can be better served not just by better buses but also by better public infrastructure to suit their needs.

Ralph Roberts, managing director of McGill's Bus Service, of Greenock, Scotland, was reacting to news in MaltaToday that the national commission for persons with a disability (KNPD) wanted to inspect any new buses before these are put on the street.

The government's call for expression of interests for the operation of the new bus service excludes bendy-buses, but allows the possibility for double-deckers as long as they are low-floored.

But Roberts said the onus of providing accessibility for the disabled should also be on the state. "It is not all about the buses. Buses today are made according to European standards and dimensions and these restrictions lie within Brussels, not the bus operator...

"It is no secret that McGill's are preparing a bid to run the public bus concession on Malta and Gozo. Our current fleet is almost entirely DDA (disability friendly accessible buses) and we work with disabled groups like KNPD in the areas we operate, not just to hear feedback and shape our thinking, but also to train our drivers and raise awareness of the issues."

Roberts said his experience was that a large part of the frustration of disabled bus users, is not the bus, but the infrastructure in getting to the bus stop or the infrastructure at the bus stop itself.

"The more proactive local authorities spend money raising kerbs to bus step height and making sure that the bus can get a clean run in to be parallel with the kerb. This way, people can just walk or wheel onto the bus without a ramp and they are not having to have special treatment. In short, they feel included and normal, which is obviously what they are.

"Looking at bus stop infrastructure in Malta reminds me just how far there is to go in achieving that goal. The point about baby buggy users not vacating the wheelchair space is a societal one and not something I would even dare to suggest a solution for but I can confirm that it is most definitely not confined to Malta."