Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Petition demands better disabled access to Swiss public transport

disabled (wheelchair) logo
Trains are largely adapted to wheelchair users, but not all stations and stops are. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / CHRISTIAN BEUTLER

A petition signed by over 15,000 people has demanded more efforts to implement the law guaranteeing equal access to public transport for people with disabilities.

The petition, launched by a group of wheelchair users, gathered 15,721 signatures since January 25 and was handed into federal authorities on Monday.

Campaigners said that the 20-year deadline for implementing the law expired at the end of last year.

+ Read more: Swiss culture sector still beyond reach for many with disabilities

“Twenty years is long enough for an implementation”, they wrote in a press release. Two decades since the Swiss Federal Railways was mandated to adapt all stations to the needs of disabled people, only 60% of stations and a third of bus and tram stops around the country have achieved such a status.

Since the beginning of this year, the public transport sector has therefore been in breach of the law, the group said, since people with disabilities cannot use public transport equally, spontaneously and independently.

Adapted from French by DeepL/dos

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR