- Amtrak has paid over $2 million to people with disabilities who could not use their stations.
- The transportation company reached a settlement with the DOJ in 2020 after it was found it violated the ADA.
- "Inaccessible train stations are more than just an inconvenience," NDRN Executive Director Curt Decker said.
Amtrak has paid $2.25 million to more than 1,500 disabled people who have experienced discrimination due to inaccessibility while traveling — or attempting to travel — by train, the Department of Justice has announced.
The money is part of a settlement reached between the DOJ and Amtrak in December 2020.
The payments come after a year-long process to identify disabled Americans who have been affected by stations deemed unusable for people with disabilities.
The money was available to people who had, or who tried to, travel through 78 specified stations with significant accessibility issues.
The DOJ investigation into Amtrak, which has resulted in this pay-out, began after receiving complaints in 2011, 2012, and 2013 from people with disabilities — and The National Disability Rights Network — alleging.
One of the complaints explained that Amtrak's inaccessibility included problems with parking, routes from accessible parking to buildings, building entrances, waiting areas, elevators, toilet rooms, signs, routes from buildings to passenger platforms, passenger platforms, passenger platform heights, and track crossings.
"Inaccessible train stations are more than just an inconvenience," National Disability Rights Network Executive Director Curt Decker said in a statement.
"Transportation is the linchpin of community integration. Without it, many people with disabilities cannot go to work, go shopping, visit their friends and family, or accomplish the day-to-day tasks necessary to live in the community."
The DOJ published a letter of findings in 2015, stating that Amtrak's stations were not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as per the 78 inaccessible stations.
When the ADA was passed, it mandated that Amtrak make its transportation network accessible by 2010, but the Justice Department's investigation found Amtrak did not do that.
Amtrak operates some 500 stations in 46 states and the District of Columbia and is "responsible for the accessibility aspects of over 400 of the approximately 514 stations it serves," the DOJ notes.
"These payments, as well as Amtrak's ongoing efforts to make rail stations accessible pursuant to our settlement agreement, bring both Amtrak and our nation one step closer to realizing the ADA's promise of equal opportunity for people with disabilities," said Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
"In the next nine years, Amtrak is required to complete designs to make at least 135 of its existing stations accessible, complete construction at 90 of those stations, and begin construction at 45 more," the Justice Department said in its statement.
In a statement to Insider, Amtrak said: "We are pleased to have reached an amicable resolution regarding passenger accessibility by working cooperatively and transparently with the Department of Justice and the Federal Railroad Administration.
"The December 2020 settlement included a $2.25 million compensation fund for passengers who may have been harmed by inaccessibility at certain stations, which is now being disbursed by the fund administrator."