Last Sunday, Jean*, a sixty-year-old from Jura, was due to travel by train to La Ferrière from Delémont, changing trains at Glovelier station, to go from platform 2 to platform 13. However, Jean is blind and needs help with connections. With foresight, he called the SBB “station assistance” service on Saturday evening, which provides staff for people with reduced mobility, to organise the service for the next day. But to his amazement: on the other end of the line, he was told that it would not be possible. He was told that Glovelier station is too small: “We don’t serve there.”
Available… but not for everyone
This is because the federal law on equality for the disabled (LHand) is subject to interpretation. It provides that people with disabilities “must be able to use public transport services without discrimination and travel with the greatest possible autonomy”. A person in a wheelchair who finds it physically impossible to board a train alone can, for example, benefit from the specialized CFF staff in all stations, Glovelier included, assures the company.
But things are different for blind and visually impaired people, much to Jean’s dismay. According to the company, these users certainly find it difficult to change trains, “but not necessarily impossible to do so”. And in the absence of any concrete obstacle, the company claims that it is not legally obliged to provide assistance. An assertion immediately brushed aside by Vaudois Nouh Latoui, himself in a wheelchair and who campaigns for the defense of people with disabilities: “It is discrimination on the part of the CFF. Everyone with a disability needs help.”
