49 CFR Parts 37 and 38 -- Transportation for Individuals With Disabilities at Intercity, Commuter, and High Speed Passenger Railroad Station Platforms; Miscellaneous Amendments, Preamble

NPRM

The NPRM proposed that, at new or altered platforms in intercity and commuter rail stations, rail operators would have to ensure that passengers with disabilities would be able to board any car of the train that was made available for boarding to the general public. The NPRM would have required that railroads use level-entry boarding as the preferred means of ensuring nondiscriminatory access. In level-entry boarding, the height of the platform and the door height of the passenger car are aligned so that a passenger using a wheelchair can seamlessly move from one to the other (usually with the assistance of a bridge plate). Only if the rail operator could demonstrate that this approach was infeasible (e.g., because of excessive curvature of the track at the station), could the rail operator use other solutions, such as lifts or mini-high platforms. The Department said in the NPRM that “the accessibility solution that provides service in the most integrated setting should be chosen” (71 FR 9764).

This proposal was made to ensure adherence to a basic norm of disability nondiscrimination law: that service be provided in the most integrated setting feasible. This principle is violated in any situation in which a railroad operator effectively limits people with disabilities to use of fewer accessible cars than are available to other passengers. The Department emphasized in the NPRM that this requirement was intended to apply only to new or altered stations, and the NPRM did not propose to require retrofit of existing stations for the purpose of providing level-entry boarding.