We want a long-term policy change, not a one-time solution
Bridget Hayman
Director of Communications
bhayman@accessliving.org
(312) 640-2129
View bio
Last Friday, veteran disability reporter Joe Shapiro of NPR broke the national story that Amtrak sent Access Living an email saying that their new policy on group trips showed it would cost us $25,000 to take out seats to accommodate two wheelchair users on an upcoming group trip to Bloomington-Normal tomorrow, Wednesday January 22. Our request had been made last month, as we notify Amtrak well in advance when we have a number of mobility device users traveling together. This time, we had five chair users in our group of 10.
When we saw the quote of $25,000 for those two seats, we were floored. Our staff tried to ask Amtrak to revise their new policy, but after a few initial exchanges we were no longer getting responses. At this point, Shapiro broke the story, setting off a national viral reaction of shock and disbelief that Amtrak, beloved by many rail users, would do such a thing to customers with disabilities.
That’s not all. Also on Friday, a junior conductor on Amtrak asked [...]