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Governor's opening remarks at summit
The following is the transcript of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's opening remarks at the Summit on Transport Facilities for the Disabled this (Thursday) afternoon:
Good afternoon to everyone.
Can I say straightaway how delighted I am to welcome you all here today. It does not seem, I am bound to say, four years since the first of these summits. But it is the fourth in the series that we have held since December 1992 to discuss how we might make public transport facilities more accessible and more user-friendly for people with a disability.
I am particularly glad to see that our colleague, Charles Leung from Rehab Power, who suggested that these summits be held at one of my first public meetings in October 1992, is again with us today. And I am sure that the report that Rehab Power have recently done will be one of the subjects that comes up in some of our discussions.
As with previous summits, our aim this afternoon will be first of all to review progress since our last meeting, and second, to take into account any new suggestions for further improvements.
It has been some 18 months since we last met. Over that period, as a result of the commendable efforts of everyone concerned, there have been further significant improvements which have enabled disabled people to use public transport facilities more conveniently.
At our last meeting I picked out a few key areas on which I hoped we would see some progress and perhaps I could briefly review the achievements in these and in other areas.
As you may recall, one of our targets was that the 'Guide to Public Transport for People with a Disability' should be updated. I am very glad to say that this has been done and the latest edition has been issued. It is full of useful, clearly presented information about facilities on public transport for people with a disability. And if I may say so, I think it is a credit to all those who were involved in the production.
Turning to the two rail corporations, we shared the hope at our last summit that they would be able to expand their existing programmes and to introduce more facilities to improve access for those with a disability.