Sight loss charities slam Scottish government

Sight Scotland, and Sight Scotland Veterans, have accused the Scottish government of placing lives at risk.  

The charities have accused the transport minister of reneging on a pledge that all stations owned and managed by Scotland’s Railway would have tactile paving installed by the end of 2023. 

Public transport is the only way most people with visual impairment can travel. Tactile paving is a system of textured ground surface indicators, often raised patterns or distinctive surfaces that can be felt under foot or with a cane. Without such paving to indicate where the platform ends, visually impaired people face a serious risk to their safety and could fall onto the train tracks. 

Craig Spalding, chief executive of Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans, says: “We are launching the ‘Pave the Way’ campaign as a lack of tactile paving at railway stations poses serious safety risks for many blind and partially sighted people. 

“While we welcome the completion of phase 1 to upgrade eighteen high priority stations, the Scottish Government’s deadline has been and gone for the remaining 148 train stations without tactile paving. 

“This is completely unacceptable and as a result many people with vision impairment are having to play tactile paving roulette, as they do not know what to expect from one station to the next.

“This is not scaremongering, or an over exaggeration; without tactile paving to indicate where the platform ends, visually impaired people face a serious risk of falling onto train tracks. We’re calling on the minister for transport to urgently upgrade all train stations in Scotland with tactile paving so that blind and partially sighted people can use our railways safely.”  

Samantha Gough, a visually impaired athlete from Edinburgh, says action needs to be taken before a serious accident happens. “I recently travelled to England by train and needed to change at Doncaster. Unfortunately, no-one was there to help me, and the station did not have tactile paving.

“It was a nightmare, a horrendous situation to be in. Fast trains were screaming past with the wind hitting me and despite screaming on the platform for help, no one heard. People have died falling on the tracks before and I thought it was about to happen to me.”   

For more information visit: sightscotland.org.uk. You can write to the transport minister to demand that tactile paving is installed on all stations in Scotland.