Out-of-order lifts often stranding wheelchair users at Dutch train stations

The issue of broken lifts making life difficult for people with mobility impairments isn’t isolated to Amsterdam’s metro stations. Out-of-order elevators at NS stations across the country often leave wheelchair users stranded on a platform or missing their trains, RTL Nieuws reports.

Broken lifts are a regular inconvenience for 22-year-old Yira Bes, who uses a wheelchair. “It is simply not indicated properly, which means that I often find myself at a station and cannot get off the platform,” she told the broadcaster. “Then I have to wait for the next train to travel to the next stop. Then I go to another platform and take the train back. That simply creates difficult situations.”

NS customer service regularly recommends that solution to stranded travelers, the broadcaster found. “We certainly recognize that travelers have to travel on and back to end up on a different platform,” a spokesperson told the broadcaster. “It is anything but ideal.”

IederIn, an interest group that advocates for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, told the broadcaster that the number of long-term disruptions seems to be decreasing, but incidental breakdowns remain an issue. “People with disabilities are increasingly avoiding public transport and not traveling, which threatens social isolation,” a spokesperson said.

Wheelchair user Kasrt Lovers (28) became so frustrated that he created a website, Stationslift Storingen, where broken elevators can be reported. “The goal is to give passengers who experience the same problem some communication and insight, which the NS fails to do,” he told RTL. “Last year, I stood in front of a broken elevator at Geldermalsen station three times in six months,” he said. Other passengers had to lift him down the stairs. “These are really not incidents to me, but major structural problems.”

ProRail told the broadcaster that about 1.5 percent of its 440 lifts are out of service for long periods of time, a halving compared to two years ago. The number of lift failures due to technical causes decreased by 20 percent in the past two years, the rail manager said. But failures caused by water damage and vandalism “remain a point of attention.”