Developing the Disability Action Plan

This plan builds on the work of the earlier TMR disability action plans. It is the first plan to be co-designed with people with disability, carers, disability advocates, industry partners, and government.

A co-designed plan:

• reflects the voices for people with disability
• highlights that accessibility benefits everyone
• contributes to better passenger transport network outcomes.

For our co-design process, we set up the TMR Disability Action Plan Steering Group (steering group) that includes experienced disability advocates. The group's main goal was to ensure community views were meaningfully reflected and addressed in this plan. The TMR Accessibility Reference Group (TMR ARG) includes a broader representation of disability advocates, industry partners and local government, and was engaged regularly.

We also consulted broadly with people with disability, carers, and accessibility reference group members about their experiences with passenger transport. Their insights told us their priorities, what is working well, and the barriers and challenges to accessing passenger transport. It included targeted consultation with regional and rural communities, and people with disability who don’t use passenger transport.

People with disability told us they want a safe, accessible, reliable, and seamless passenger transport network – and highlighted the following:

• infrastructure at some stops and stations needs accessibility upgrades, but where upgrades have been made, the difference has been substantial and positive
• accessible vehicle design has improved with co-design, but there are still barriers for many vehicles
• people need clear, accessible information and real-time updates to plan their journey. If services are disrupted without notice or accessible options, it can stop someone from completing their trip
• unreliable and not enough services are key reasons why many people with disability (including people from regional communities) rarely use passenger transport
• informed, empathetic and helpful customer services, especially from drivers, helps people feel more confident and safer during their journey
• the value of co-designing with people with disability, advocates and carers during planning, design and delivery of passenger transport projects cannot be understated.

In the following sections, we outline what TMR is doing now and will continue to do to make passenger transport journeys as safe, accessible, reliable and as seamless as possible.