Reply To: Electric scooter
Hi, Sorry that you had that experience.
Can you tell us what the station was? Unfortunately, mobility scooters can’t be used at some stations (you can search stations here: https://www.ecomo-rakuraku.jp/en). But since you got to the tracks without being stopped by staff, I assume that wasn’t the case here.
Two things I can think of:
- For requesting the ramp, you do sometimes need to explicitly request it as some wheelchair users don’t use the ramp, so the staff may be working on a “assume they don’t need it unless asked” policy.
“Ramp” isn’t really used here so try using “slope”. In Japanese, “suro-pu wo onegaishimasu” (スロープをお願いします). You might want to copy and paste that to share next time.
- The procedure is different at every company. Some lines have you go to the train and wait, others have you wait by the ticket gate for someone to take you to the train. Japan Rail (JR) asks you to wait at the ticket gate. So, after getting your ticket (or showing your JR pass), tell the staff the station where you want to go to and say “suro-pu wo onegaishimasu”. They will tell you to pass through and wait near the gate for someone to come, after a few minutes they will come (sometimes it will be security staff, not station staff) and confirm the station you want to go to and then take you to the train line.
Hope that helps! Keep us posted.
- For requesting the ramp, you do sometimes need to explicitly request it as some wheelchair users don’t use the ramp, so the staff may be working on a “assume they don’t need it unless asked” policy.
