While similar services are available in other countries, do they display as much professionalism and attention to detail as this Japan Railway staff member?
Japan resident and Facebook user Alfrito Lin uploaded a video to her page showing an East Japan Railway Staff member locating and helping a wheelchair-bound passenger off an arriving train.
What surprised the hundreds of thousands of viewers, and as seen in the comments, is how professional and polite, with an attention to detail, the railway worker was.
The original post with high definition video is linked here, with an SD copy of Lin’s video posted below.
In the video, we see an East Japan Railway staff member standing at attention, waiting for an approaching train.
He’s probably been informed beforehand that a wheelchair bound passenger has boarded this train, is headed for their station, and is in this particular car.
In his hand is a tri-fold portable ramp made specifically to bridge the gap between the station platform and the train.
As you can see in this screenshot, there’s a sizeable gap that must be bridged or the passenger in the wheelchair may damage a wheel or, worse, get injured trying to hastily exit a train.
He positions himself by the door, waits for one passenger to exit, and has expertly anticipated and intercepted the passenger in question.
He carefully lays out his portable ramp and, with a polite bow exchanged between them both, ensures the safe exit of the passenger without the slightest delay to the rest of the train.
“People in Japan are very kind and disciplined,” Maricris Hochi comments.
“I’m from Scotland, and we have this, there’s a step-down from the train, so it would be required for safety anyway, it gets a call ahead at the destination station and someone is ready for the carriage with the ramp so those wheelchair bound can be safe, also people help others with heavy luggage or prams or the elderly to step down safely,” Finn J. Phillips clarifies.
As mentioned, this sort of service is available in many places, where it would be unreasonable and downright wrong to expect wheelchair users to make the jump between train and platform on their own.
However, there’s something to be said about the finesse and efficiency that’s on display from these Japanese Railway Staff.
