A teenager says she was humiliated when ‘aggressive’ passengers shamed her for sitting in a priority seat on a Bristol First Bus.
Passengers shouted, swore and tutted at Martha Pugh-Jones, accusing her of not needing to sit in a priority seat even though she was wearing a badge for people with hidden disabilities, reported Bristol Live .
The 18-year-old has a chronic fatigue syndrome and a condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which causes heart abnormalities when she stands, particularly when she’s moving.
The condition is severe, and meant she had to miss her final year of sixth form at St Mary Redcliffe to recover, after developing the condition 18 months ago.
After a year out of education, Ms Pugh-Jones restarted year 13 in September and has only recently begun using public transport daily.
She said: “Last Wednesday, I was travelling back from The Centre and did manage to sit down in a priority seat, but then lots of people got on, including a mum with children.
“She sat next to me, but then other passengers started tutting because I didn’t give up my seat for her child. I just couldn’t stand, and I knew the bus journey was going to be 45 minutes.”
The riled passengers were quick to instruct her to move. “Some of the passengers then started talking about me and then one or two challenged me saying I should get up.
“I showed them the badge, and tried to explain, but one man in particular got aggressive.
“We were travelling all the way up Gloucester Road for half an hour or more, and he was shouting and having a go at me. When I got up to get off, he shouted: ‘See, you can walk fine! There’s nothing wrong with you! So you can stand up!’”
The blue badge scheme helps people with hidden disabilities to travel to work, access shops and to socialise.
Ms Pugh-Jones holds a blue badge for when she is in a car and for commuting in London, as part of a Transport for London scheme.
Badge holders carry a card explaining the details of the holders’ condition and wear a badge that says ‘please offer me a seat’.
She added: “If I have to stand on a bus, there’s a chance I’ll just faint. I have to keep kicking my legs out to get the blood flowing, and it’s the motion of the bus that makes it worse too,” she said.
“I left this situation feeling anxious, belittled and humiliated. I missed the next day of study as I was too ill to attend school, a further result of the difficult bus journeys.”
Now Ms Pugh-Jones is campaigning for the ‘hidden disability’ scheme in Bristol to mirror the London and Manchester initiatives.
She has written to the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, asking for more to be done on public transport.
Every priority seat in London and Manchester is labelled clearly with a sticker or poster to advise passengers that not all disabilities are obvious.
First Bus has responded to Ms Pugh-Jones’ campaign. A spokesperson for the company said First would start promoting the scheme in Bristol by launching cards that badge holders' can show to the driver to ask for help.
James Freeman, managing director of First West, said: “We want everyone to have a comfortable journey on our services, and we recognise that can be difficult for people who have health conditions or disabilities that are not visible.
"That’s why we’ve created our 'Extra Help to Travel' campaign which is available to anyone who feels they may find it easier to travel on our services if they had more time, were spoken to more clearly or had a chance to sit down."
However, Ms Pugh-Jones has said the campaign does not go far enough as it focuses on asking for help from drivers rather than informing passengers of such difficulties.
Drivers, she noted, are already trained to deal with such issues, while the general public lack education on 'invisible' conditions.
