Services to Disabled Travellers

At Warrington Borough Transport, we are committed to making our services accessible to all existing and future customers. We constantly try to make improvements and are always open to hearing any suggestions from you so that we can provide the best possible service. With this in mind, please let us know if you are experiencing a barrier to using our bus travel, and tell us any ways you think our services could be made more user-friendly.

What’s new at Warrington Borough Transport?

Vehicle Accessibility:
We always aim to meet the standards required by the Disability Discrimination Act for access to buses.
The Disability Discrimination Act sets target dates by which all buses used to operate local bus services must be wheelchair accessible and conform to other related accessibility criteria, such as entrance step height and seat spacing.
All minibuses must comply by 2011, all single deckers by 2015 and all double-deckers by 2017, and we have a bus replacement plan in place to ensure we meet these accessibility targets. Currently over 80% of our front line fleet is made up of low floor ‘kneeling’ buses and we are on course to achieve our target of 100% by 2010.
All of our wheelchair accessible vehicles include:

• ramped access
• level or gently sloping floors
• tactile and brightly coloured stanchions / bell pushes
• wide seat spacing
• priority seats for senior citizens

Flourescent Passes:
Flourescent Passes are available from Warrington Borough Council for you to flag up to the driver when you signal for a bus to stop. The driver will then know that you need the access floor lowering for you to board the bus and will therefore act accordingly.

Familiarity with Buses:
If you have a disability or maybe a sight impairment, you are welcome to visit the bus depot by prior arrangement and board one of our buses to feel its interior. We hope this will give you confidence in boarding buses and talking with our drivers so that you will be able to get around Warrington more easily in the future.

Key Fob Transmitters:
We issue Key Fob Transmitters free of charge to all visually impaired customers, allowing you to activate voice announcements of Real Time Passenger Information from display units at bus stops.

Passenger Projects
We are actively involved in a project with Warrington Borough Council which is designed to help people with learning and communication disabilities travel independently on public transport. The project includes a booklet of photographs of destination points that passengers can show to drivers to indicate their destination, and won the runners up prize at the recent bus industry awards.
We have also helped Warrington Borough Council to develop a training pack to promote the use of public transport as a means of independent living, and this is currently being used in schools for young people with special needs.

If you need any of the support services offered by us or Warrington
Borough Council, or would like further information, please email: gina.dale@wbtltd.co.uk