The National Disability Rights network has published a report on Amtrak’s accessibility problems. No surprise, the biggest issue is the lack of level-platform boarding:
For decades, Amtrak has stalled and made excuses for its failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Some of the justifications have included: 1) that level boarding is difficult to achieve 2) that it often does not own the stations that it serves and therefore only has a shared obligation to make them accessible; and 3) that it lacks federal funding necessary to make the stations and trains accessible.
Although there may be some challenges to obtaining full accessibility, these are obstacles that Amtrak has had more than two decades to overcome. In fact, Congress recognized these difficulties and that is why Amtrak ended up getting the 20 year compliance extension, the longest of any public service. Amtrak needs to stop making excuses and do the work necessary to come into compliance.
Level-boarding is possible and enhances station usability for everyone.
The problem isn’t a lack of funds. Amtrak received considerable stimulus funding for station renovations, but did little to improve accessibility. The report recommends that Congress include strict accessibility requirements in the next Amtrak re-authorization. I would go further, and recommend that any rail system receiving Federal funds has to comply with accessibility requirements — no exceptions!
The problem has a fairly long history. The NDRN analysis is shallow, unfortunately. Here’s a better one:
(1) The first Amtrak President to make any effort whatosever to provide ADA accessibility was Boardman. (Note that there were 7 Presidents of Amtrak between the passage of the ADA and Boardman.) This is obviously a pretty serious problem. However, it’s fixed now; Boardman is doing his best.
(2) The Class I Freight Railroads are all run by whiny babies who like to break the law. They are refusing to allow level boarding. They are refusing to even talk to Amtrak about designs. Amtrak documented one case in which Amtrak had to get a court order in order to get the Class I to even talk to Amtrak about entering the property in order to do work which *wasn’t* within the ROW.
Congress needs to pass a law requiring that the Class I Freight Railroads permit level boarding platforms at the normal distance from the tracks, whether they want to or not. High-and-wide loads will be the class Is unfunded problem.
This law would solve most of the problems. The problems originate from the Class Is, not from Amtrak. The law would need to apply penalties to any FREIGHT railroad which refused level-boarding, at-train-edge platforms. Applying requirements to Amtrak is pointless; requirements must be applied to the FREIGHT railroads in order to have teeth.
(Of course, a saner option would be what every other country does: nationalize all the freight railroads the way Clement Atlee did and get rid of their whiny ass executives.)
Worth noting is that Amtrak has established level boarding at pretty close to all the stations where it actually owns both the station and the line.
Amtrak in fact improved accessibility using pretty much every dollar of the station-renovation stimulus funding, and pretty much every dollar of ADA-specific funding from Congress, contrary to your claim; I’ve been tracking the projects individually. Elevator overpasses tend to cost a lot.
The list of Amtrak-owned stations on Amtrak-owned lines which lack accessibility is really short, and they’re all in progress. The problem is, at this point, almost entirely with the other owners, and mostly the Class I Freights.