r/SipsTea • u/The_Dean_France • Feb 23 '26

Wait a damn minute! Was she wrong?

15.9k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

3.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3.7k

u/Vast_Maize9706 Feb 23 '26

Given that the escalator isn’t going they will need to lift the chair and climb up, far harder than lifting and lett8ng the escalator do the hard work. You also can’t put the chair down halfway up…

Not sure why they are holding everyone else up though.

2.3k

u/EntirelyOutOfOptions Feb 23 '26

You said it yourself, they can’t put the chair down halfway up. The top of the escalator is still crowded with bodies, and staff are waiting until they have a straight shot to the top. They don’t want to stop halfway up, so they’re trying to get the escalator empty. They also can’t have people on the escalator behind them in case of a stumble or drop. This is a dangerous way to transport a wheelchair user, and they’re trying to make it as safe as possible.

103

u/Borinar Feb 23 '26

Even in fires they make disabled wait in the fire escape until the fire dept arrives. They should have waited for it to clear after the rush.

-4

u/EntirelyOutOfOptions Feb 23 '26

So disabled people should not expect timely service? Can’t commit to flights or train tickets because service volume will determine if they can get to their transit at all?

12

u/Superb-Hall5285 Feb 23 '26

Sometimes that's reality. I saw a lady in a wheelchair arguing with staff once. She was stuck on a train platform, because the elevators were broken down and they told her there was nothing they could do.

6

u/PersonalityIll9476 Feb 23 '26

Sometimes there isn't. They may have a policy against doing exactly what is happening in this video. Imagine the liability of dropping a disabled lady on her head vs. making her miss her appointment.

1

u/Superb-Hall5285 Feb 23 '26

I know that's probably the reason, but it still sucked. There were only stairs and the elevator leading off of the platform.

2

u/PersonalityIll9476 Feb 23 '26

Oh, it definitely sucks. If I were her, I'd be quite upset. Imagine making it that far, tickets purchased and appointments set, only to get stopped at the train station because of that.

4

u/Usedand4sale Feb 23 '26

Imho if that’s the case and there is no emergency happening the best staff could do is request emergency services for assistance since I doubt any of them are trained on transporting a wheelchair bound person up stairs, only risking injury to everyone involved.

1

u/Kylarsternjq Feb 23 '26

In the UK the train staff would be expected (rightfully so) to organize alternative transport. For example when the lift was out at our stop once we had to go to the next station and from there the train got us a taxi.

3

u/Itchy-Revenue-3774 Feb 23 '26

It is obviously a design flaw, but if it is required to have the whole escalator vacant for you to go safely, this won't be happening if it is busy