Amtrak and the ADA

You have may have noted that many train stations in the US are not handicapped accessible. In addition, many trains are not handicapped accessible either. You may have wondered if Amtrak is aware of this problem. According to the public relations office in Chicago, they do know that this is a problem.

Amtrak is legally supposed to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but they have not actually gotten any money to bring achieve that compliance. This the first year in my memory that Amtrak has come close to being fully funded, and they are spending that money on new train sets. These train sets should be much more accessible than the ones they have now, but it will take a few years before they are actually in service.

There are two things that you can do to promote accessible train stations. If you are concerned about a particular station in your state, you can your representatives of the state legislature. If you concerned about the overall problem, you can contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to vote to fund accessible train stations.