Steven wrote:

Interestingly, although I'm a regular rail user, I've *never* seen anyone
with a
wheel chair use a train.

And yet millions have been spent just in case one should ever want to.

I have a few times at Clapham Juncttion and occasionally on long distance
routes. But at the moment frankly a lot of stations are utterly inaccessible
for wheelchair users, leaving only a few combinations of routes viable. Even
the stations that are good at allowing a wheelchair user to make it onto the
platform from the street then let the side down by not having the platform
at roll-on level.

I recall a leaflet from either Railtrack or one of the South London TOCs
from a decade ago about wheelchair users which was full of obstacles - from
what it seemed the wheelchairs used by about 2/3 of wheelchair users would
not be allowed for one reason or another. Staff are not able to put chairs
on and off trains - fair enough but they equally seem unable to use the
portable ramps issued to most stations. For all the central effort to make
the railways accessible and DDA compliant, a lot of staff on the ground are
not aiding that - similar to the way a lot of London bus drivers seem unable
to learn how to operate the ramps.