Disabled/autistic passengers

[Aspergers_Aspie]

I was reading this story and thought was is next, disabled/autistic/pregnant people not being able to sit on trains or buses:-

Woman praised for refusing to give seat to elderly passenger on train to Scotland

A woman has sparked a debate after she refused to give up her seat for an elderly passenger on a train journey, as she insisted she had booked the seat in advance

www.edinburghlive.co.uk

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I read the article and think that, in this case, I agree that the train company should have sorted out their seats better. I don't feel like the woman who refused to give up their seat should be either celebrated or blamed for her actions. Also, we're not talking about a 10-minutes bus ride here. The article is about a 7-hour train ride. Everyone wants to sit down there, understandably.
This woman reserved a first-class seat for her own reasons on a long journey, booked it well in advance and paid for it. It should have been marked clearly upon reserving that this seat was a priority seat and that she might have to give it up, so that she could reserve another non-priority seat if she wished. But it wasn't marked.
The elderly woman - who in the story sounds quite able to stand her ground, figuratively - could have booked a seat, which she did not do, or, if this was really out of her financial possibilities, ask for the seat politely and nicely. Also - but this is just me thinking - she might have just bought a standard ticket with a seat reservation instead of a first-class ticket without a seat, if sitting down was important to her and money played a role. But that's speculation.
It seems to me that both parties got worked up about it, in this case. Also visible because they got offered to sit down in standard area, but both insisted on the first-class seat. If I simply want to sit down, I'll sit down anywhere. But I think that the blame lies with the train company. It seems unnecessarily complicated to have priority seats sold to other passengers without any sort of warning. I book a seat on a long journey, too, because I know that it stresses and exhausts me a lot to be standing over several hours on a full train, and I wouldn't be happy to give up my pre-booked seat to another person either, because I have no proof that I need it. I would still do it, if I got the impression that the other person needed the seat more than me, but I wouldn't be happy about it.

 

[Misty Avich]

The woman wasn't exactly elderly, although of course she might have had a physical disability, but if she doesn't then I think she was being entitled. But nobody should have to stand on a long train journey like that, whether young or old.
In the UK we have a first come first serve basis, so if you have booked something in advance and paid then you have the rights. If there were non-priority seats available and the older woman hadn't paid for a priority seat then I don't think that gives her the right to expect someone who paid for the seat to give up their seat.

 

[marc_101]

This seems to me like an article by a teen journalist that wants to have clicks or from a troll farm -- designed to stir controversy about personal rights, disability, and so on. It's a huge leap in logic to go from this story to disable people being banned from seating...

 

[Misty Avich]

As much as I respect older people, sometimes some older people can use their age as entitlement and can even bully younger people out of their seats without considering that they might actually have an invisible disability or condition that can require them a seat more than a capable person in their 60s.

When my mum had cancer during the lockdowns, there were a few seats outside the doctors surgery for people to sit and wait under a shelter (only about 4 or 5 seats). It was cold so my mum had to wrap up and obviously wear a facemask, so when looking at her like that she looked quite young and healthy. But she was anxious about waiting there because she felt she had to give up her seat if a person who looked older than 60 came for an appointment, and going through chemotherapy and having to have regular blood tests at the doctor's, she was iller than she looked and couldn't stand for long.

 

[Kisa the tea]

Im just a bit confused on why there is an article on this now when the reddit post is over 2 years old from what i found.

 

[jsilver256]

Unless I'm missing something, this is a silly article. It is not like the elderly woman was denied a seat. The elderly woman was denied a first class seat.

 

[VictorR]

This seems to me like an article by a teen journalist that wants to have clicks or from a troll farm -- designed to stir controversy about personal rights, disability, and so on. It's a huge leap in logic to go from this story to disable people being banned from seating...

If I'm not mistaken, the website linked is a community events type website that basically republishes news from other sources (rather than writing its own), and in this case, the original source was a tabloid, and British tabloids are well known for their sensationalism.