Pupils design rail crossing for disabled

Transition year schoolchildren in Wicklow have won the Young Social Innovator of the Year Award for their design of a prototype rail crossing for wheelchairs.

The wooden "barrow crossing" allows access to many DART and suburban stations which are currently out-of-bounds to the disabled.

The transition year pupils of East Glendalough School in Wicklow town, who late last year converted their own school to accommodate wheelchairs, have already won the support of Wicklow County Council for their project.

However, they claim they have had little support from Iarnród Éireann and say they even had to resort to political pressure to get letters answered by the company.

This is despite the fact that Iarnród Éireann's Dublin to Wicklow railway line has extensive problems serving the disabled.

At a number of DART stations there is only one platform accessible to wheelchairs, a feature which means that if disabled people are heading south from Salthill and Monkstown, Seapoint, Blackrock or Booterstown, they must first get a train north to a station where disabled access to both platforms is available.

This can be Sydney Parade, Sandymount or Lansdowne Road, where limited access is available with Iarnród Éireann staff allowing them through otherwise locked gates.

To avoid this the next station with lifts is Grand Canal Dock.

Similar difficulties exist on return journeys where passengers for stations such as Blackrock, Booterstown, Salthill, and Seapoint have to travel as far as Dún Laoghaire, where lifts are available and then get a return DART to their home station.

According to Iarnród Éireann's own website, similar restricted access exists in Glenageary, Killiney, Shankill, Bray, Greystones, Kilcoole and Wicklow.

"Our pupils were horrified," said transition year teacher at East Glendalough, Ms Sheila Zeitsman. "We really only discovered this problem with our own school which is only about 17 years old, late last year. The pupils designed and provided temporary ramps to allow access for wheelchairs and then turned their attention to the railway station which is beside the school."

The pupils designed a wooden covering which would fit across the rail lines allowing the chairs to cross over while still allowing the trains to cross as well.

"One platform is accessible in Wicklow and Iarnród Éireann said if a disabled passenger notified them in advance, they would have the train serve that platform, but that doesn't help Kilcoole or Rathdrum, the next stations along, where no access is available."

Iarnród Éireann spokesman, Mr Barry Kenny, said the pupils had basically "re-invented the barrow crossing", which he claimed safety consultants had ruled against. Under the company's DASH programme all DART stations were being made wheelchair-accessible.