3 December 2015

Transdev Auckland Supporting International Day of People with Disabilities

Transdev Auckland is proud to be recognising International Day of People with Disabilities, a United Nations sanctioned event celebrated worldwide today, and supported by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. This is a day to promote the understanding of people with disability and encourage support for their dignity, rights and wellbeing. The 2015 theme is Inclusion matters: access and empowerment for people with all abilities.

One of this year’s sub-themes is ‘making cities inclusive and accessible for all’ and Transdev Auckland recognises the important part our staff and operations play in helping the city of Auckland be more inclusive and accessible for its residents. Signing up to participate in this event was seen as an opportunity to promote greater awareness and understanding of customers who might experience challenges when using Auckland’s passenger rail services.

Transdev Auckland works closely with Auckland Transport and other members of the Public Transport Accessibility Group (PTAG) to identify and help overcome some of these challenges and barriers. Currently Auckland Transport and Transdev Auckland are trialling platform markers at a number of stations. These markers are designed to assist train drivers in stopping trains in the correct position so that customers wanting to board the service by way of the ramp, can wait on the platform nearest to where the door will open.

Since the start of its contract in 2004, Transdev Auckland has held disability awareness training for all of its staff with the involvement of the Blind Foundation and CCS Disability Action. Chris Orr, Environmental Awareness Advisor for the Blind Foundation and one of the facilitators for Transdev Auckland’s training program, said “Transdev Auckland has really embraced the concept of Disability Awareness from the word go and I have enjoyed my involvement in assisting its staff in recognising the vital role they play in making Auckland’s rail service accessible for everyone. By making their staff aware of the challenges that people with various disabilities face when using public transport, and remembering this training to perform their jobs, then they really can make our lives a bit easier. I fully support Transdev Auckland in all that they do in this space and I am really pleased that they are getting behind this event. I would encourage more organisations to get on board next year to help make our society more inclusive.”

A number of activities are being held today to start these conversations with Transdev Auckland’s staff, including a lip reading challenge and visual impairment simulation glasses for staff to highlight the importance of making station and on-board announcements. Auckland Transport and Transdev Auckland are also out on the network next week to monitor the success of the platform marker trial with the anticipation of being able to roll these out across more stations next year.

Transdev Auckland operates the passenger rail network on behalf of Auckland Transport and are both members of Auckland’s Public Transport Accessibility Group which was established in 2014. Together, we are committed to working with this group in helping to ensure that the 15 million passenger journeys taken each year are 100% accessible for all.

More information on this event can be found on the NZ Human Rights Commission’s website here.

ENDS

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