Disabled people’s commission seeks ‘invitation’ to inspect new buses

The national commission for persons with a disability (KNPD) has been given reassurances by transport minister Joe Mizzi that the new bus service will be fully accessible for disabled persons.

But the commission is insisting on inspecting any new buses before these are put on the street.

The government has issued a call for expression of interests for the operation of the new service following the departure of Arriva.

The authority has imposed the maximum dimensions of the buses that will be used, excluding bendy-buses but allowing the possibility for double deckers. Buses' engines will have to be low-emission, Euro 5 compliant and low-floored. 

Speaking to MaltaToday, KNDP chairman Joe Camilleri recalled that before the introduction of low-floor buses by Arriva, KNPD representatives were invited to try out the vehicles beforehand to ensure that they were accessible to people with different disabilities.

"KNPD looks forward to a similar invitation and for the opportunity to give its feedback before any final plans are made," Camilleri said.

Camilleri also revealed that back in September, he wrote to Mizzi seeking his assurance that disabled people's needs and rights would be respected in any forthcoming reforms in the public transport sector.

In his reply Mizzi made it clear that accessibility for persons with disability would be assured in any and all changes to the existing public transport system.

Camilleri was not particularly concerned about the possible introduction of double-deckers as a replacement to bendy buses on certain routes.

"The KNPD does not object to the introduction of double decker buses so long as disabled persons, including wheelchair users, are catered for," he said.

He pointed out that whilst disabled people who are deaf, blind, or have an intellectual impairment will be able to access the upper and lower floors of these vehicles, it is imperative that people with restricted mobility are not discriminated against.

"At the very least, we have to be provided with the same level of accessibility we have come to expect from the existing fleet of low-floor buses". Although popular with motorists, Boris Johnson's decision to reintroduce the Routemaster double decker angered disability rights activists.

Transport for All, an organization which speaks for older and disabled transport users, said that the authorities were "nuts" to scrap the vehicles, especially as their new Routemaster-style replacements had only "a tiny wheelchair space".

"On every other bus in London, wheelchair users are frequently left stranded at the bus stop when pushchair users refuse to fold their buggy and give up the wheelchair bay," said spokeswoman Lianna Etkind in 2011.

Moreover the organization pointed out that the elderly and people with no visible disabilities but whose mobility is in some way impaired would face greater difficulty if the lower compartment of the double decker is full.

But unlike the old double deckers, the new Routemaster introduced by Boris Johnson has several design features catering for greater accessibility: a low floor, three points of entry, the i-bus system which announces destinations both visually and via audio, and plenty of grab rails.  But while welcoming all these features Transport for All complained that although the wheelchair space met official regulations, "maneuvering skills of a paralympian basketball player seem to be required to get yourself into the space".