Sarah Leadbetter and Claire Glasman outside Downing Street [Simon Lamrock]

DISABILITY cam­paigners said they will not be able to travel on trains independently if government’s plans to reduce staff and shut ticket offices goes ahead.

The Kentish Town-based group WinVisible, along with visually impaired and disabled campaigners across the country, went to No 10 Downing Street on Tuesday to hand in the National Federation of the Blind of the UK’s petition to the prime minister.

The petition, signed by more than 150 organisations, pushes the government to rethink its rail modernisation plans. Alongside WinVisible, Camden-based groups the Thomas Pocklington Trust and Visually Impaired Camden also signed the petition.

Claire Glasman, from WinVisible, said of the proposals: “It’s very scary. They’re planning a lot of ticket office closures and instead you just have to find a roaming member of staff. But what if you can’t see them?

“The point about having the ticket office is you know where it is. And it’s really important because they tell you if the lift is broken where you’re going, they tell you a route you can take to still do your journey like if you have to change at a different station.”

She added: “They make sure that you meet up with the assistance person who will take you to the platform and also they make sure you’ve got the correct concessions.”

Ms Glasman said the plans to remove train guards would also hit the visually impaired and disabled.

“There was an incident at St Pancras where I was going forward towards the train to get on the carriage and the front wheels of my wheelchair got stuck underneath the metal step of the train,” she said.

“It got wedged and luckily there was an assistance guy there who sort of yanked everything. I was scared because I thought the train might move on.

“This is why you also need the guard on the train because they get out to look down the train when there’s a wheelchair user onboard. “You should be able to travel independently. Very few people have support or someone who is available to travel when you want to travel, or even willing.”

The RMT is also campaigning against the changes. In London, there are other challenges on public transport as some tube stations have no step-free access and only one wheelchair user can get on a bus at a time.

A government spokesperson said: “Our Access for All programme has delivered step free accessible routes at over 200 stations, with additional improvements at over 1,500 stations.

By modernising the railway and moving staff out of ticket offices, we can enable them to provide more face-to-face assistance, so all passengers get the help they need.”