A Melbourne disability advocate had to wait three hours for a taxi home from Shepparton, after regional rail operator V/Line failed to provide the accessible carriage she booked.
Janet Curtain visited Shepparton last week to run a support session encouraging people with disability to access the COVID-19 vaccine.
She booked ahead for an accessible carriage home to Melbourne.
But just before boarding, the Shepparton station told her the carriage was not attached to the train, so she would not be able to board.
"And I was like, 'This is not my problem, this is your problem'.
"People with disabilities need to get home too."
Incident one of many
Ms Curtain's experience is not an isolated incident.
One man described how he was forced to travel in the luggage compartment of a train in 2006.
The Department of Transport said it was developing a transport accessibility strategy, to improve accessibility in public transport, roads, parking, bike lanes and shared paths.
But Ms Curtain said change could not wait.
"Able-bodied people can use accessible carriages too, so it seems ridiculous to me that an accessible carriage isn't there all the time," she said.
V/Line pledges to investigate
V/Line said the train was scheduled to have an accessible carriage but the carriage had a door fault and had to be removed for service repairs.
A spokesperson said, on this occasion, V/Line's taxi provider did not have an accessible taxi locally, so one had to be called from Bendigo and that caused the three-hour delay.
"We would like to sincerely apologise to the passenger for her experience and acknowledge that what happened was not good enough," the spokesperson said.
Ms Curtain said the words rang hollow.
"Just hearing us is not enough," she said.
"On the drive home, my taxi driver said this happens at least twice a week.
"They say, 'We understand the situation', or they make excuses, but there is no excuse."
