Mind the gap

Last week, I traveled between the cities of Allahabad and Lucknow. We took an inter-city train. The stoppage time of the train at our station was two minutes.

Two minutes to locate the coach of the train, and hop on.

It's stressful enough for youngsters, let alone, when you're traveling with senior citizens. We decided to hop on to the train, and then make our way to our designated coach.

We're fairly used to traveling by train, but this was the first time we were traveling by an inter-city train. And it was only after we had climbed aboard, that we found out, there was no way to move from one coach to another from inside the train. We had no option but to forego our reserved AC seats, and travel in the general, unreserved coach.

Fortunately, we found seats, and being a four-hour journey, we were able to manage.

Once we reached, we narrated this to our uncle. He told us that he doesn't recommend booking the AC coach on the train.

For our return journey, he warned, 'Be careful when you climb on to the train, the gap is very wide.'

He explained it thus: The train stands on the platform in a curve, while the train coaches themselves are straight. So the gap between the platform and the train becomes very wide at certain coaches. 

One of those certain coaches, it turns out, was the lone, reserved AC coach of our train.

'For old folks like us, it becomes very difficult to climb, and so we don't book the AC coach,' he said.

Well, they should have placed the AC coach at the end then, I blurted out.

'And let the unreserved general class travellers suffer instead? Put the coaches in any order, some coach will be in the centre.'

The problem of course, was that the platform itself was curved. 

'Exactly!' said our uncle, 'but fixing these aren't a priority for the government!'

It may not be a priority for the government to straighten a platform, because it isn't being demanded. It isn't being demanded, because it isn't so glaringly visible, as compared to, say, a pothole. Making the structural change may be inconvenient, and even if the change is made, the difference may not be perceived as fixing something that's broken.

In any design activity, usability is hidden from plain sight. It is when it's missing, that it is noticed.

To address such usability issues, it is worth keeping 'extreme users' (such as seniors, toddlers, and differently abled people) in mind.

Be it a railway platform, the coaches of a train, or an online booking system for train tickets - building accessibility is sure to make everyone's life much easier.