It has been a long time since I last used the National Autistic Society's forum page. For the first 35 years of my life, I lived in Felixstowe, Suffolk with my parents, but I have now been living independently in Ipswich, Suffolk, since September 2016. This move is a means of future-proofing my autism support requirements, and also gain access to things like better public transport services, better retail facilities and so on.
My local train company, Greater Anglia, has been in the process of ordering an entire brand new fleet of trains. The older trains will probably be completely replaced by later this year (2020), or possibly the year 2021. Whilst the new trains may be exciting to some people, such a big, fleet-wide change can be quite tough on the autistic in my opinion. Some of these new trains have experienced teething troubles shortly after their public introduction, and no matter how good they are, or eventually will be, I get the feeling that any autistic train travellers would miss the familiarity of the older trains. All sorts of stuff can cause confusion (longer length, different make, different sounds and so on).
It is understandable that any new or refurbished trains have to comply with disability access regulations, but what allegedly tends to be forgotten is that some passengers, such as myself, have a hidden disability, whether it's autism or otherwise. I was never going to expect the existing train fleet to be instantly replaced with new trains, as this will probably take about a year or two anyway.
Have any of you travelled on any completely brand new trains in your area? If so, what impact do/did they have on you, or someone else you know, that has an autism condition?
Any opinions would be appreciated.
