Are the new trains barrier-free on the railway lines in the Oberland? BRB boss Fabian Amini is now commenting on this. Activists meanwhile prepared a demo.
- This summer, the Bavarian Regional Railway (BRB) exchanged its previous Integral and Talent trains for a new Lint fleet on the routes in the Oberland.
- People with disabilities are dependent on the train driver laying out a ramp for them to get on.
- While BRB boss Amini points out that the new trains also bring a lot of progress towards barrier-free access, the inclusion ambassador Markus Ertl from Lenggries is planning a demonstration against the trains.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - The new Lint trains of the Bavarian Oberlandbahn (BOB): Do they mean progress or regression? This question continues to be debated. Inclusion ambassador Markus Ertl from Lenggries is now planning a demonstration at the BOB site in Holzkirchen to draw attention to the disadvantages for passengers with restricted mobility. Fabian Amini, managing director of the BOB parent company Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB) emphasizes the advantages of the Lint trains - also for people with disabilities.
In the Tölzer Kurier, Ertl and the wheelchair user Sybille Janisch recently complained that wheelchair users could not get on the Lint trains without outside help because there was a gap and a difference in height between the platform and the train. Amini now takes a personal position on this.
“I don't want to argue anything away,” he says. Compared to the 17 integral trains that have now been withdrawn from service, the “Lint” has a “worse entry situation” for people in wheelchairs. With the six talent trains, which were also replaced, the problem was the same as with the "Lint".
"I've never had a complaint on the table that a wheelchair user was overlooked"
However, the vehicle drivers would quickly and easily lay out a ramp that wheelchair users could use - this is how it went with the “Talent” and now also with the “Lint”. "We are happy to help, and I have never had a complaint that a wheelchair user was overlooked," emphasizes Amini.
Janisch and Ertl complained that people with disabilities could no longer travel as flexibly as before. Amini contradicts the statement that the mobility service must be ordered 48 hours in advance. "The pre-registration goes through our customer service until the evening before the trip, but it also works spontaneously and without pre-registration." If wheelchair users register their trip in advance, the BRB can plan better.
Fabian Amini, managing director of the BRB.
© Thomas Plettenberg
The BRB boss admits that vehicles with different entry heights can also be built, where entry with a wheelchair is easier at some stations. “But there is nothing like this off the shelf, we would never have got it in 2020,” he says. The acquisition could then have been made in about five years at the earliest after a new allocation of the Oberland routes.
The main problem are different platform heights
According to Amini, this would have meant waiting five years for passengers to see improvements in vehicle reliability, air conditioning and passenger information. And people with disabilities have not yet benefited from further advances. Amini mentions the "tactility" (perceptibility for blind people through touch) of the pushbuttons at the entry and exit as well as the toilet, the tactile floor marking, the barrier-free toilets with SOS button at a low height, and the vertical handrails inside the train. Amini describes it as a great advantage of the "Lint" that the area for wheelchair users is separate from that for bicycles. “You no longer have to compete with each other for parking spaces.” In order to maintain all these advantages, the poor entry situation is “a shortcoming that we had to accept”.
Amini sees a basic problem of accessibility outside the area of influence of the BRB: the different heights of the platforms across Germany, but also within the Oberland. “They are between 96 and 20 centimeters above the top of the rail. There is no vehicle that can compensate for these differences. ”The homogenization of the heights is“ a problem that will keep Germany busy for decades ”.
Inclusion officer sees the Federal Equal Opportunities Act violated
Inclusion ambassador Ertl is not satisfied with Amini's statements. He has already communicated clearly about the new trains and is sticking to it: “Don't call that barrier-free!” As a person with a disability, you just don't want to have to rely on being noticed by a train attendant or driver. “I have heard several times from people who had to wave wildly on the platform until the train almost drove away.” The train drivers would then have had to look for the ramp first. And how sure can you be that this will also happen when the train driver is stressed, for example because the train is already late?
Markus Ertl, inclusion ambassador from Lenggries.
© private
Ertl was also told that a wheelchair user with an oxygen device could not find enough space in the wheelchair area. In addition, wheelchair users would not be able to leave the trains quickly enough in the event of a fire. The wheelchair space next to the toilet is "unworthy", according to Ertl.
There has been some progress with the Lint trains. “But everything is not well thought out.” Ertl points out that according to the Federal Equal Opportunities Act, accessibility means “that technical systems - including trains - can be accessed independently”.
The nationwide association "Unhindered", of which Ertl is the 2nd chairman, wants to demonstrate in front of the Holzkirchen train station on August 21 - for retrofitting the Lint trains, but also for accessibility in rail traffic in general. Ertl is hoping for around 100 participants.
The Lint trains also call for criticism because they are too loud.
