Rail Car Accessibility – Boarding Technologies for Passengers Using Mobility Aids

VIA Rail is an independent crown corporation offering inter-city passenger rail services in Canada. After a review of VIA’s current boarding assistance system and related services provided to passengers using mobility aids, an investigation to identify a potential Boarding Assistance System that could be deployed to access inter-city train services was initiated. A detailed survey of passengers using mobility aids was done to identify their needs and preferences for boarding and alighting services. The respondents indicated the need to improve upon the boarding assistance currently provided. A general conclusion of the present investigation is that provision of a safe, reliable, and comfortable vehicle-based lifts will reduce some of the present limitations for passengers using mobility aids to use inter-city passenger rail services. This improvement could be achieved by integrating vehicle-based lifts with VIA Rail’s existing and future rail cars. A survey of VIA’s operational and technical requirements in retrofitting their rail cars with vehicle-based lifts indicates that while it is considered feasible to retrofit the rail cars, some modification of commercially available Boarding Assistance Systems would be required.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE60 Standing Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Chawla, Uttam
  • Blais, Daniel
  • Chawla, Bobby
  • Rüger, Bernhard
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Boarding and alighting; Intercity transportation; Passengers; Persons with disabilities; Railroad cars; Railroad transportation; Surveys; Wheelchair lifts
• Identifier Terms: VIA Rail
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Subject Areas: Design; Railroads; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01630088
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-01730
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 27 2017 9:30AM