The Duma has obliged the railroad to help wheelchair users
Moscow. April 20. INTERFAX.RU — the state Duma adopted in the third final reading the law, securing the carrier and the owner of the railway infrastructure duties to ensure embarkation and disembarkation of people with disabilities without additional charge.
“Now at any train station staff will be required to provide assistance to people with disabilities and in a wheelchair,” said Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on health Leonid Ogul.
According to the law, passengers shall be arranged by the carrier
Currently, the responsibility for the entry and exit for rail passengers with disabilities rests solely on the owner of the infrastructure.
However, commuter rail service on the vast majority of stops have no staff and any representatives of the owner of the infrastructure.
“The distance between the floor of the vestibule of the car and passenger platform specified in the Rules of technical operation of Railways of the Russian Federation does not allow a person in a wheelchair to independently overcome it when boarding and disembarking. This is possible only when equipped with special of rolling stock landing gear, but this is often not. When the carrier is not liable for the boarding and disembarkation of passengers with disabilities, he is not interested in the acquisition and installation of such planting devices,” said Ogul.