Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to improve access to buses for blind and partially-sighted people.

Andrew Jones

I understand how important affordable and accessible bus services are too many visually impaired people, and Government continues to support initiatives to improve access.

By January 2017 all local and scheduled buses designed to carry more than twenty-two passengers must comply with the Passenger Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR), which include the provision of low floor boarding facilities, colour-contrasting step edges and handholds, and priority seating. We also encourage the bus industry to increase the uptake of audio-visual systems, and have supported projects to design innovative and low-cost approaches to providing accessible on-board information.

Further, Government remains committed to maintaining the national concession , which provides almost a million disabled people with free off-peak bus travel throughout England, helping them to remain mobile without worrying about the cost of doing so.