One of the conversations I’ve only been having since I’ve been in a wheelchair.
Hello, it’s Eurostar calling. You booked assistance to get onto the train at Amsterdam later today.
Me- Hi yes, I did.
Them- We have a problem. The elevator isn’t working at Amsterdam Central so we need you to go to Rotterdam to board your train, because the lifts there are working fine.
Me – Ok, and how do I get to Rotterdam?
Them – On a Eurostar train
Me- From where?
Them – Amsterdam Central
Me- How can I do that if the lifts aren’t working?
Them- that’s why we are asking you to go to Rotterdam
Me- but how do I get to Rotterdam?
Them ( again ) – on a Eurostar train.
Me- but how can I catch a train from Amsterdam Central in my wheelchair if the lifts aren’t working?
Them – You catch a Eurostar Red train going to Paris.
Now it’s pretty clear to me ( and bear in mind this is passenger assistance calling a fella in a wheelchair ) that’s it’s not abundantly clear how I can get onto a train in Amsterdam when the lift isn’t working.
What i want the assistance person to explain to me is how the new plan is going to work. If the lift to the Paris train is a different lift, and that one is working, and this is a workaround then tell me maybe, because it’s not 100% obvious.
I’m told to go to the station an hour earlier than before.
I duly do, in fact 90 minutes before.
When we get there, there is total confusion ( as expected ). Staff don’t know about the lift status. Lots of them look confused and some take to their phones. Lots of ‘ checking ‘ seems to be going on.
The person at the gate tells me it’s not his job. I say ‘ that’s why I’ve given you the name of the assistance person who specifically said she would come down and take care of me’ …
More confusion- don’t know who she is?
Another fella walks by, wearing a pass.
He asks what’s going on.
We tell him.
He phones the assistance desk and eventually the lady comes. She is smiley, but one of those people who use a thousand words when 10 would do.
The more she says, the more confused I get.
The lift is now working, but at the same time it’s not working, she said. That really filled me with confidence. I just looked at her, thinking ‘ ffs can you just not tell me what I have to do to get on my train , and do it by leading me through the station via the correct route to end up where I need to be ?’
But no, she couldn’t do that. Instead she said another thousand words that didn’t sound promising.
Eventually we went quite a long way to a gated barrier far away, to a promising looking lift.
Not too soon mate! This lift to the Plan B option was out of service.
She and two colleagues then talked for about 10 minutes in Dutch.
Then she proposed that I catch another train, then another one again, to get me to eventually join my booked train journey somewhere else, in another far flung station.
I said ‘ two more trains and two more sets of ramp assistance?’ Yes, she said.
No, I said. That sounds ridiculous.
I was then told to wait inside a ticket office place until someone else came.
I then received 3 phone calls from Eurostar assistance.. and it was apparent that they didn’t know I was ( allegedly) already being helped.
More waiting around… and then a guard who was very much acting urgently told me to follow him as we only had 4 minutes to catch the train.
I’d been inside the station for 90 minutes by this point.
Gina and I then chased this fella running through the station. He was the first person I had even a molecule of confidence in, despite it looking like we’d miss the train we were rushing to.
We didn’t miss it though. It wasn’t a Eurostar train, it was a regular train going to Rotterdam, and we got on it, and ramp people were there in Rotterdam to get me off it.
Now we are on a Eurostar train to London.
Unless you are in a wheelchair, you don’t know the half of it, I’m telling you.