dc.description.abstract
Abstract Our society comprises many people who are hindered physically, mentally or emotionally. Disabilities can arise from illness, accidents and acts of violence (such as consequences of war). For a humane life the achievements which promote equal rights and self-determination are important. Therefore, it is the task of politics and society to integrate people with special needs in all areas of life. Beside numerous other areas of life, entry and exit of passengers at railway stops poses considerable problems for passengers with limited mobility.<br />Generally they need more time than other passengers, and in particular wheelchair users represent the group of passengers that is confronted with the strongest restrictions when entering a train.<br />In the light of these known problems in the entry areas, the aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of existing boarding aid systems, and to evaluate these systems in terms of specific advantages and disadvantages, and to give a judgment of the current state of the actually offered boarding aid systems and the practical experiences gained with these systems. Within this thesis as a first step, a survey of more than 120 railway undertakings (RUs) in 30 different countries was carried out to learn the current state of affairs. To obtain the most relevant information, technical details of individual solutions, and thus experiences gained on this subject, a questionnaire with 15 questions in English and German was prepared and sent by letter or e-mail to the RUs. Some very detailed responses from more than 35 of these recipients were obtained. Today's railway operators apply a whole range of different systems of boarding aid. More than 90 percent of these systems can be assigned to 4 major groups, namely ramps, lifts, steps, and gap-bridge constructions. In principle sliding steps and gap-bridging can be considered as ideal boarding aid systems to support disabled people when entering or leaving trains. This judgment on the one hand is based on the fact that these systems do not depend on extra staff assignment for operation (which represents a distinct psychological advantage for disabled people), and the railway organizations do not need any advance information when operating step systems as boarding aid, and, on the other hand, on the very short times required (the application of the steps ordinarily requires less than 10 seconds), combined with high reliability and general acceptance by customers. Due to partly technical, partly economic circumstances, (i. e. as long as the levels of all trains and platforms are not virtually identical) the railway companies actually cannot provide such systems as a rule or even not at all, and, hence, they have to apply other systems, such as ramps or lifts, for the boarding of disabled people.<br />The following section deals with the properties of ramps and lifts, the advantages and disadvantages of various models and frameworks for the particular application. For ramps an inclination angle of 17% is considered as an upper limit for the use by wheel chair drivers. Consequently, ramps can only be applied on platforms whose level lies less than 380 mms below the train level (as a practical rule, lifts are already used whenever the differences in levels are beyond 250 mms). Thus for the railway companies the height of the platform is the most important criterion for the choice between ramps and lifts as an entrance help.<br />With both ramps, as well as lifts there exist four constructive sub-groups: each can be operated either manually or electromechanically, and they are either platform-based or vehicle-based, and all possible combinations are existing. In each case the electromechanical, vehicle-based variant is the most user-friendly, but also the most expensive option. When comparing the respective pairs of constructively equivalent devices, ramps generally are substantially cheaper, more reliable and less time consuming, what is also reflected in the evaluation by customers and staff. However, it must be pointed out again that for low-level platforms (difference in level between train and platform between 250 mms and 760 mms) lifts are essential as a boarding aid system. Therefore, national trains sometimes carry at least one electromechanical vehicle-based lift.<br />
en