Barrier-free travel
Easy boarding, barrier-free access to information, travelling safely – everyone benefits from unobstructed mobility. By the end of 2023, our passengers will be able to enjoy barrier-free access to the stations and trains throughout the BLS network. In this manner, BLS will meet the requirements of the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act in all of its trains and at all of its 115 stations and stops.
By the end of 2023, BLS must comply with the requirements of the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act. Measures here include the installation of wheelchair-accessible ticket machines and emergency phones, as well as ramp handrails with bent ends. Lighting and public address systems also need to be improved. In addition, BLS will lengthen and raise platforms to ensure level-access boarding and exiting with the new trains it will be commissioning. These measures will benefit not only passengers with limited mobility and those with hearing and visual impairments but also elderly passengers or travellers with pushchairs or a large amount of luggage.
More than three-quarters of BLS passengers can already board trains with barrier-free entrances.
As far as stations are concerned, BLS will be able to comply with the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act in most cases through refurbishment projects that have already been planned. BLS is definitely on track in terms of implementing the changes required by the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act by the end of 2023: Practically all BLS trains already meet requirements for low-floor access, wheelchair-accessible toilets and visual and acoustic information systems. With regard to infrastructure, more than two thirds of BLS’s 115 train stations were already barrier-free by the end of 2022 while 84 per cent of BLS passengers can now board trains with barrier-free entrances.
It’s not always possible for railway companies to implement all the construction changes required at railway stations by the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act. In some cases, this is due to the fact that a train station lies in a curve and trains are banked when they stop, while in other cases train stations are located on a slope, which makes the associated construction measures more difficult. In these exceptional cases, the government commissions the railway companies to conduct cost-benefit analyses to ensure costs don’t get out of control. BLS is currently examining a few train stations to determine whether or not the construction measures associated with the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act can be implemented at a reasonable cost. One thing is certain, however: none of BLS’s 115 stations will be decommissioned in connection with the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act.
