From the home of the innovative Wheel-a-ramp, the new Aerolight Rail Ramp is your safe and easy train access solution! Read on to discover the full benefits…
Traditionally, ramps for trains, otherwise known as rail ramps, manual boarding ramps or train wheelchair ramps have been designed to open while the ramp is standing upright, resulting in an awkward deployment, and difficulty for platform staff, passenger assist teams, train managers and guards to place the ramp down.
The Aerolight rail ramps (otherwise known as manual boarding ramps) can be naturally carried to the train doors, laid down into place, with the first half of the ramp resting on the train step and then the other half being opened up, like you would when opening a large book.
It’s important that rail ramps have sufficient grip surfaces to provide a safe access route for mobility devices. However, this grip surface can become clogged with bird droppings when stored, affecting the safety of the ramp. Therefore, it’s an important part of our rail ramp’s design to close ‘grip side-in’, ensuring that the strong grip remains unaffected.
Carrying a ramp with the grip on the outer surface can cause discomfort against bare skin or unwanted clothing snags. As looking after the well-being and safety of staff is key to the rail industry, the Aerolight rail ramps provide a better user experience for platform staff.
It’s a fine balance between having a rail ramp strong enough to take heavy mobility devices, and yet light enough to be easily carried from one end of the platform to the other. With a very low ramp weight, our Aerolight rail ramps have a very high capacity of up to 350kg!
The ergonomic twin handles on the new Aerolight Rail Ramp is designed to enhance the easy deployment of the ‘grip side-in’ concept ramp. The special design provides the necessary strength for the rail ramp, and comfort for platform staff carrying and deploying the ramp. These aluminium alloy handles, with the excellent rubber grip coatings are well known for their strength and durability. With many platform ramps being used multiple times per shift, by different passenger assist staff, guards and train managers, the handles need to be reliable and comfortable as well as functional.
In the very unlikely event that a handle gets damaged or worn, they can easily be replaced quickly and efficiently by rail maintenance teams, facilities management staff or by our experienced technicians.
User-friendly, secure storage options
Railways by their very nature are public spaces and consequently the passenger assist teams, guards and train managers always need to be prepared to assist passengers and visitors with disabilities onto trains, often with little or even no notice, which requires ramps to be readily available and usable. The RampstorTM Vertical Storage Unit is designed with the threat of vandalism in mind, and a priority on user-friendly needs – like ease and speed of use. This unit fully encloses the rail ramp to provide convenient and secure protection of the Railway’s access equipment.
Having worked with a large variety of British TOC’s (Train Operating Companies) over the last 27 to 28 years and even more European organisations including FlyToGet, CAF, and many other well known organisations and manufacturers, we can design the product to suit your existing and new rolling stock.
If you would like a demonstration or would like to trial one of our innovative rail or manual boarding ramps on your trains or on a TOC’s trains, please contact our rail & transport team today. Contact us now to equip your platforms with safe, secure and compliant accessibility solutions!
