'I use a wheelchair and this is what it's like for me to get into town'
01.12.2023 - 17:21
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
June Craven, who has cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user, has not taken a train for four years. In a round of what she jokingly refers to as 'exposure therapy' she wants to show us why.
The M.E.N met with her on a bitterly cold November morning and arranged to travel from her home in the Weaste and Seedley area to her local train station in Eccles. Once there we plan to get a train to Manchester Piccadilly and onto Stockport before returning.
It's a journey that should be straightforward, but it's not long before the barriers wheelchair users face when using trains become abundantly clear. We arrive at Eccles train station and are confronted by two steep sets of stairs that go down to the station. There is no way for June to get the train.
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The station is entirely inaccessible for wheelchair users. It is a phenomenon that shockingly is far from unusual. Out of the 97 train stations in Greater Manchester, less than half currently have step-free access.
Luckily there is a tram stop near to June’s home and instead we take the tram to Manchester Piccadilly. June, 39, tells me that trams are in fact one of the reasons she chose to move to Manchester, more than 140 miles from her family in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
“Part of the reason I came was for the trams. When I was 17 I was doing a creative writing course in Hebden Bridge and got the tram from Manchester Piccadilly to Victoria. My little country bumpkin mind was blown. I was like ‘What? There's a form of public transport that you don’t need a ramp’. That was the seed
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