I'm going to see an evening with John Cleese in November, in Manchester with my brother Daniel. He lives not far from Manchester and normally I would require him to travel down to Stafford to pick me up to take us/me to Manchester. It's a Tuesday evening though and he's one of these responsible adults with a job.
"I'll get the train" I said confidently, as at this point it was July and the evening in question was a long way in the future. It was easy to say I would do it without thinking about the fact I was actually going to have to do it. Now it's in a couple of weeks and the thought of navigating the train station on my own made me apprehensive. I'm not the most confident bloke, but my trustee steed (iM4.Elite) is enabling me to get out of my comfort zone. So...
"I'll do a practice trip before the actual trip" I thought "Because I'll probably cock it up"
And guess what? I was right.
I cocked it up!
Mind the gap
Let me explain. Again, I remember that there was this very handy little blog called...oh what was it...oh, I remember! wheelchairworries.com 😁 it mentions that you can purchase a Disabled Persons Railcard (see post Wheelchair Worries - Social Prescribing. So I did, but it takes up to five days to process, so I thought I'd just do the journey without the card. I thought the only advantage of the railcard is that the ticket is cheaper. However, card or not, my dad informed me, I needed to tell the train company (Avanti) of my disability as they will need to provide a ramp to get onto the train.
Cock up number one.
Luckily my train was at 13:03 and the Trainline AI assistant told me I needed to give them a minimum of two hours notice. I called them on the morning of my trip and they arranged assistance telling me to go to the ticket office upon arrival.
My taxi got me there about 30 minutes early, the pessimist in me assumed something was going to go wrong and I wanted plenty of time to spare. Surely this wasn't going to go smoothly? I went straight to the ticket office and informed them of my arrival.
Starbucks
I was told somebody would come to the ticket office and take me to the platform. I even had time to go and get a Starbucks. The lady didn't know what time I needed to be back for, but she wasn't too fussed if I was here or in Starbucks. I would usually be stressed about all the things I could cock up and wouldn't relax until I was on the train. And that relaxed mood would quickly evaporate when I started thinking about getting off this train and getting to my connecting train.
I returned to the ticket office after I got my (iced) coffee. I was taken from the ticket office to the platform where the special assistance went to get a ramp and came back to help me onto the train.
This is already my favourite way to travel. Granted, my opinion will change when the infamous train delays affect me. But for now, it couldn't be going any better.
Getting onto the train wasn't particularly simple. The train is a good height above the platform and there is a decent sized gap between the platform and the train. I had my wheelchair on the lowest speed setting [PICTURE OF POWER] so as to reduce the speed of the impact when I inevitably run into the back of somebody - some might say I'm a bit of a liability - not the best driver. I disagree, I say I'm an excellent driver
A wheelchair users view
The ramp is quite steep but the iM.4 Elite is upto the task. I take an immediate left and then follow the corridor as it curves right to the carriage. It's incredibly tight. The corridor is barely wide enough to fit my wheelchair and I'd left the footrest down. A rookie mistake. It adds a couple of inches to the length which meant I was pinging off the walls like a pinball machine. The wheelchair space had luggage in it, but the passenger moved the luggage in question and I took up residence, opposite some more luggage. The driver came to see me to confirm I needed special assistance at Manchester Piccadilly. He told me to wait here when we reach my stop and somebody will set up a ramp, get me off the train and take me to the correct platform for my connecting train.
When I got off the train it was about 20 minutes till my connection to Oxford Road and the Starbucks had left me in need of the facilities.
Here was my first opportunity to cock it up 👍
It only took us about 5 minutes to get to the toilets and I only spent a minute or 2 using the facilities but we were going to miss the connection... Well, I don't see how we were definitely going to miss the connection, but there was no point rushing when the next train was an 8 minute wait. So the special assistance changed my booking to the next train on a different platform and took me to it. He made a call and phoned ahead to the next station and arranged assistance at the next station.
I kinda cocked it up, but an adult was around to sort it 😁
Have I mentioned that I love thiscompletely stress free method of travelling?
I boarded the train and by the time I positioned myself in the disabled space, the train had pulled into Manchester Oxford Road and I could hear the ramp being clicked into place.
Here was my opporunity to cock it up,an opportunity I took full advantage of. According to Google Maps it was a ten minute walk from the station to the Albert Hall. I got to the street and the road I was on went in both directions and the text instructions said walk north-east...I didn't know which way North-East was and Google Maps didn't show what direction I was facing, but logic tells me that if the time it takes on Google Maps increases, I need to turn around. Well Google Maps wasn't updating, by the time it did it said I was 17 minutes away. Ok. So I turned around. It wasn't updating again. I asked a Traffic Warden but he didn't know as he'd just moved to Manchester. I went along this road for ages and I couldn't find it. I think this successfully illustrates my infamous sense of direction. I could well have passed it and not realised.
It got to 15:30 and my train was leaving at 16:13 so I thought I'll head back now, even though I had forty minutes to spare, I wasn't confident I'd find it in time.
I got back to the train station with plenty of time to spare. As I entered the station somebody came over to ask me if I had booked special assistance. I hadn't, I'd neglected to book it for my return journey. He told me to wait for him at the platform and he would come and find me. He then arranged for somebody to meet me at Piccadilly and take me to my connecting train.
I love special assistance!
As I think is quite obvious from my posts on this blog, I am an idiot, and I quite frequently do idiotic things. Having special assistance means I have less opportunity to be an idiot, but when I do manage it, they are there.
I have told Daniel (brother) that he will need to pick me up from the train station though, I don't want to go all that way and then miss the show.
I have just finished listening to Neil Warnock's audiobook 'The Gaffer: The Trials and Tribulations of a Football Manager.' Conveniently, he then appeared on a couple of podcasts I listen to, promoting some live shows he's doing in which he's even more unfiltered than he's been in the past, as he's now retired and can say what he likes. He was doing a show at the Opera House in Manchester, which isn't a million miles from where my brother Daniel lives. Daniel recommended the book to me in the first place, I didn't want to go on my own, and I was sure he would go with me. The Gods were smiling down on me it seemed and urging me to go, and if there's one rule I've always lived my life by it's DON'T PISS OFF THE GODS. so with confirmation that Daniel wanted to go as well, I headed over to atgtickets.com to book the tickets.
Access card
I've used this site several times before and if you have an account and an Access Card (as I do), your requirements are already selected when you view the site. As you can see from the picture, I have three requirements:
Level Access For people who require wheelchair accessible facilities or have to have level access as they are unable to make even a few steps.
Distance If you have difficulty moving yourself more than short distances
Essential Companions This symbol is awarded to people for whom it would be significantly difficult to access services without support from another person.
I logged into the website and when I went to the event to book a seat. It says
access membership benefits applied
atgtickets.com seating plan
I was suspicious. A large amount of the 1,920 capacity are wheelchair accessible? Really?
Normally there is an option to filter just wheelchair access seats. There was no help on screen and no guidance as to how to use their search filter. There might not be any wheelchair seats available, but I could use any seat, providing I can get my wheelchair close to it. I gave them a call.
Me: I'm on your site looking to book tickets for Neil Warnock on Friday 29th August. I'm logged in but it's allowing me to buy most tickets. I'm in a wheelchair.
I went to the Utilita Arena to see Roger Waters in 2023 and there were lots of wheelchair seats. In fact there was a whole viewing platform incredibly close to the stage. That was a several thousand seating arena though, this was a twentieth century theatre, built the same year as the Titanic sank. Understandably wheelchair access is limited without making significant modifications to an existing building. But I think there could be an icon on the search filter saying wheelchair seats are unavailable.
Them: Both wheelchair seats are taken
Me: Both?
Them: Yes, I'm afraid there's only two seats in that theatre
Me: Oh, well is there an aisle seat I can book?
Them: There are steps to every other seat.
Me: Oh. I'm logged in on my account and your site is allowing me to book any seat. I have an access card that clearly says I'm a wheelchair user.
She checked my account and saw that I wasn't registered as a wheelchair user on their system. Clearly it's been removed in error as my access card states that I am in a wheelchair. There is no way to view what requirements are attributed to my account however, I just have to trust that they have the correct requirements and are not allowing me to purchase tickets I can't use. Otherwise I could book any seat in that theatre, travel upto Manchester only to find I have to climb stairs to get to my seat.
Them: oh sorry your account wasn't showing you required wheelchair access, it is now.
atgtickets.com seating plan
what you actually want is a seat with a wheelchair symbol on it which are few and far between.
I couldn't find an example as most of the performances seemingly have wheelchair seats.
This is 13 Going on 30 on Friday October 10th. As you can see, there is one seat available.
I can completely understand the want to reduce the amount of wheelchair seats purely for cost. But couldn't the government subsidise the theatre so that the customer still pays less, but the government pay the rest. Then the theatre won't miss out on the revenue.
I happened to be browsing aroound Facebook 1 day when I saw an advert for a performance by John Cleese talking about Fawlty Towers. It was at Manchester Albert Hall, which isn't a million miles away from my brother, Daniel etc.
These tickets were from seetickets.com. The sites not as interactive but it does offer wheelchair access. No doubt because the limited amount alloted were still available. I phoned up to arrange for a companion to attend with me and the lady on the other end of the phone was fantastic. She sorted it all out for me and kept apologising as it's an old building and they've done the best they can.
She set it all up and I recieved a confirmation e-mail:
This was a very much appreciated confirmation. I didn't feel like an after thought for once. The venue hadn't done the bare minimum to allow them to tick a box to say there's wheelchair access. The confirmation was hand written and she excused what I'm sure is going to be a nice experience.
