Petition demands better disabled access to Swiss public transport

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.

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“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

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