Between missing platforms and broken escalators, public transport in II is not suitable for disabled people
Public transport in the II Municipality is not for disabled people. The problem was brought to light by a study conducted by the local Young Democrats, through the “Accessible Mobility” analysis presented on March 30 and handed over to the Capitoline councilor Eugenio Patanè. A painstaking job that explored the metro, bus and tram lines that cross the area from Parioli to the Olympic Village, from Africano to Trieste passing through Nomentano. “A snapshot of the current state of the main critical points in terms of TPL” the young dems say, an unflattering photograph especially if we take into account passengers with reduced mobility, the elderly and disabled who every day for various needs are forced to use public transport .
The accessibility of public transport in the II Municipality
The summary data reported in the dossier already provide an alarming picture: 3 out of 7 metro stops are currently not accessible by lift, 10 out of 24 lifts are not working, 31% of tram stops are not easily accessible to those in transit. wheelchair. Only 6 lines that pass through the II Municipality are guaranteed for people with motor disabilities. “As regards the Metro B/B1 stops – we read in the document – the critical issues concern above all the presence of numerous ski lifts, escalators and lifts, which are stopped for maintenance or not working. This causes enormous inconvenience for citizens as some stations become difficult to access to the point of completely precluding use by those who have difficulty moving around.”
Tram: 19 out of 65 stops are not accessible
Things are no better when it comes to trams, which with lines 2,3 and 19 are among the means most used by residents of the municipality to get around every day. According to the report, the cars operating on line 19 are almost always inaccessible to strollers “having a steep ladder to climb and platforms that are not wide enough and without slides”. The young democrats take into account that the modernization of the car fleet is not a quick process, but they propose intermediate solutions: “Targeted interventions on the platforms could be carried out in a shorter time – Gualtieri suggest to the council -, starting from strategic stops. An example on all is the fact that the stop in front of the Polyclinic, a fundamental hospital not only for the Municipality but for the whole city, with millions of patients per year, is among those not accessible in the report”. There is no slide for disabled people and the platform is too narrow for the parking and transit of prams and strollers. Out of 65 stops analysed, 19 are considered non-accessible and 6 are accessible “with reserve”. The most virtuous is line 2: the 16 stops that connect Piazza Mancini to the Flaminio in one direction and the other are all easily usable by those with mobility difficulties.
Metro off-limits: elevators and escalators out of service
Returning to the situation of the elevators and escalators along the B and B1 metro lines, the picture outlined by the dossier is perhaps the worst. All six elevators located on the ticket office floor and on the platform level are not working, the only one that can be used is the one on the street pine. Several escalators not working. At the Annibaliano metro – where work will be underway until July for the construction of 270 car parks, after 12 years of waiting – out of three lifts only one is working, an escalator is off-limits and the lift for the street-floor level ticket office is not connected to the Loges route, the one dedicated to the blind: essentially anyone leaving the cabin, unaccompanied, could easily get lost. There are four escalators in Piazza Bologna, none of which can be used to date and there is no escalator that connects the street level to the ticket office. At the Policlinico metro, which reopened on Christmas Eve after over a year of work, the lifts and escalators are in service but the only way to get to the ticket office without using the lift are the stairs and the existing lift is not connected to the Loges route, with all due respect to the visually impaired and blind who dare to use the subway. In Castro Pretorio and Tiburtina things are decidedly better, less so in Flaminio: there are no lifts that take you from the street to the ticket office and from the ticket office to the platforms and one escalator in three is out of service.
Disservices which are defined as “paradoxical” by those who drew up the report, especially if we consider that they also concern two stations inaugurated exactly ten years ago, namely Libia and Sant’Agnese/Annibaliano: “The systems are almost always at a standstill due to various problems – the report denounces -. Added to this is the fact that even when maintenance or replacements of the older ones are carried out, information is never provided to citizens about a reopening date, a timetable to be respected, exacerbating a feeling of mistrust and anger on the part of users”.
Rome’s metros are inaccessible, out of 75 total stops, half have system problems
Buses accessible, but not too much
Although 6 lines that cross the territory are considered accessible (60, 80, 90, 360, 490 and 542), the critical issues encountered by the young democrats are different: “In addition to the problems relating to a percentage of buses – explains Tomas Osborn, secretary of the GD of the II Municipality – increasingly limited given the new supplies of modern vehicles, which do not have an access platform for the disabled, there are other critical issues that concern the lines in our Municipality and beyond and which make it difficult (if not impossible) for those who want to move independently in a wheelchair or for parents who carry their children in a stroller and in general for elderly people or people with mobility difficulties”. Taking via Nomentana for example, almost all the stops are “islands” in the middle of the road, with sidewalks without platforms, difficult to reach for those who cannot rely on their legs.
The document is now in the hands of councilor Patanè and his municipal counterpart Valentina Caracciolo: “They greatly appreciated our work – concludes Osborn – and in particular Patanè underlined how much the discussion on accessibility must also be extended to usability for all passengers in terms of modernity, capillarity and accessibility of the means of transport. We are confident that this administration will work in this direction”.
