Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a mandatory requirement for companies to allow mobility scooters to carried on their carriages as a condition of application to operate future rail franchises.

Currently all train operating companies will carry mobility scooters which can be folded. Most can also carry unfolded mobility scooters, provided that they do not exceed the measurements of the ‘reference’ wheelchair and can meet certain manoeuvrability criteria - such as turning circle and the ability to safely propel (or be propelled) on to the train via a boarding ramp. Decisions on the safe carriage of mobility scooters, which may depend on individual platform widths and heights, are best made by the train operating company and communicated to passengers via its mandatory Disabled People’s Protection Policy.