Toolkit helps improve accessibility at sea

The Passenger Rights toolkit provides operators in England and Wales with a high-level guide on what they must do to comply with passenger rights regulations, as well as recommendations on how maritime transport can be made more accessible.

Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani said: “I encourage as many operators as possible to support our vision to make sure disabled people have the same access to transport as everyone else.”

Inclusive Transport Strategy

The toolkit will apply to services such as ferries operating from Liverpool and makes recommendations on how maritime transport can be made more accessible to make journeys better for disabled passengers and staff.

The development of the toolkit was a commitment in the Inclusive Transport Strategy, which was published in July 2018.

Maritime transport already benefits from comprehensive passenger rights regulation and this is enforced by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The toolkit provides guidance to support the regulations and will help industry to comply with them.

At the end of 2018, the MCA carried out its first survey of disabled passengers’ experience when travelling by sea and the results were used to inform the recommendations made in this toolkit.

By Rebecca Jeffrey