“The new normal”​ railway must be inclusive and accessible

It was 2008 during the massive banking crisis when I boarded a plane to Frankfurt at London City Airport to deliver training for Lufthansa’s flight attendants, a journey I did many times before. This time was different. Instead of worrying if the plane was overbooked, I was shocked to see that the flight was virtually empty. I had a staff ticket. The only other passengers on board were several older couples on their way to a short trip to Germany. There was not a single business traveller on my plane, starting from London’s business airport. The only passengers left were pensioners and me with a ticket paid for by Lufthansa.

A challenging relationship

When I joined the railway industry in January, I didn’t expect in my wildest dreams what would happen to this industry only three months after I joined. I had decided to leave journalism covering UK current affairs for German media outlets, a job I wanted to do since I could read. The reason why I wanted to become a journalist is the same motivation why I decided to agree to an offer to become Head of Accessibility — impact. I could see I would have an impact in an industry which maybe has the most challenging relationship with the disability community of all industries in the UK.