From
the BBC» :
Disabled woman 'forced' to use stairs on Megabus
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The megabus service at Bristol Airport has one row of accessible seats behind the driver
A woman with mobility issues said she was told she had to climb up the stairs on a bus because the driver did not want anyone to sit near him.
Jenny Rowe, 77, was getting a Megabus coach from Bristol Airport to Wellington, Somerset, after a cruise holiday. She has mobility issues, including problems with her spine, and has had a hip operation.
The coaches have a single row of seats behind the driver, with all other seats up a flight of stairs. Rowe said the driver told her to sit upstairs or "get off", which was an "awful" experience that ruined her holiday.
The company has apologised and said it would refund her ticket.
Rowe struggles to walk, which led to airport staff taking her by wheelchair from the terminal right to the bus stop. "I paid for my ticket and as I went to get on the bus I said: 'Can I get on to the seats behind the driver?' He said: 'No, I don't have anybody talking to me, I'm not having it. You either go up those stairs or you get off'. I can't do stairs. It's so painful to do stairs. I got to the top, absolutely in tears."
Rowe, from Wellington in Somerset, added: "Everybody on the bus was looking at me, I felt like I was two inches high."
Jet Gates, a disability campaigner said Rowe's story is "heartbreaking". "We see it so much - disabled people being in situations where they feel humiliated and treated like a piece of luggage," Gates added. She said the situation was "completely unacceptable" and there was a reason the seats exist on the bus. "It puts her in a situation where she's severely vulnerable," Gates said. "It's 2026, we need to stop treating disabled people like this, we are humans. That is the main element to take away from this. There is more empathy to be had."
A spokesperson for Megabus Falcon, which runs the Plymouth-bound service, said: "We are very sorry for the level of service this customer received during her journey. It's clear that the service she received on this occasion did not meet our usual standards. We are addressing the issue privately with the driver involved as well as reinforcing among all employees our high expectations around customer service and, in particular, supporting customers with additional mobility requirements."
