Disability Advisory Board raises the alarm: Elevator at Hohenbrunn train station cannot be a solution
Created: 07/06/2022, 09:30 am
By: Patricia Kania
The community wants the center platform to be removed and replaced by two outside platforms with ramps.
© vogelsang/Archive
The municipality of Hohenbrunn has been fighting for barrier-free expansion of the S-Bahn station for years.
Now things are moving.
However, not in the way the community and those affected had imagined.
Hohenbrunn
– According to the district's Disability Advisory Board and Mayor Stefan Straßmair (CSU), Deutsche Bahn (DB) favors a variant that is apparently the easiest for the company to begin with.
She just wants to install an elevator.
The central platform should remain.
If the elevator is broken, that's it for accessibility
The District Advisory Board for Disabled Persons (BBLKM) is sounding the alarm.
In a press release, he "urgently recommends not pursuing this solution because it does not represent a reliable barrier-free development of the platform." The reasoning makes sense: If the elevator is defective or damaged, which is not uncommon, that's it with accessibility.
There is also maintenance work.
In addition, the Hohenbrunn train station is often affected by vandalism (we reported several times).
Enabling equal mobility
All of these imponderables could make an elevator unusable for days or weeks and would prevent equal mobility for people with disabilities, warns the Disability Advisory Board.
“Travellers who rely on accessibility would be trapped on the platform after arriving by train.
This applies to people in wheelchairs, people with walking disabilities and travelers with prams or heavy luggage," says the press release.
Municipality wants outside platforms
The initiative of the Disability Advisory Board comes at exactly the right time for Mayor Stefan Straßmair.
For years, the administration and local council have been trying to get their voice heard at Deutsche Bahn.
They plead for a complete conversion: the center platform should be removed and replaced by two outside platforms with ramps for barrier-free access.
Concern for student safety
In addition, an underpass will connect the eastern and western sides of the town.
This is particularly important with regard to the planned new secondary school west of the railway line.
Stefan Straßmair sees an important safety aspect here: "I don't want students to put themselves in danger by walking across the tracks to the train." However, the current situation invites them to do so.
"I'm very concerned if up to 1,000 students move here in the future," says the head of the town hall in an interview with the Munich newspaper Merkur.
Straßmair finds it unacceptable that the railway company only wants to install an elevator.
"It's probably the cheapest and simplest option, you don't have to rebuild anything," the mayor suspects.
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Talk to the train tomorrow
He has been trying for a long time to get in touch with Deutsche Bahn.
Several times he asked those responsible for personal appointments and invited them to the municipal council to present the plans.
Vain.
"At least now a video conference call comes about," says Straßmair.
"Better than nothing." That should take place next Thursday.
It remains questionable whether he can still change the course.
Straßmair remains combative: "I'm not giving up, something urgently needs to happen here."
