Priority seating

I have previously had trouble getting seats on public transport while I was pregnant.  The occasions when someone offered me a seat were rare and I think TFL need to rethink how they enforce priority seating if they want to be truly friendly to all travellers.  I can attempt to be understanding of the lack of lifts in some stations- this may be due to the cost/difficulties in the installation of lifts in an old underground system.  It is still an excuse and a truly modern transport system should have these facilities to be inclusive but I can see that a straightforward resolution is unavailable.  Enforcing priority seating does not require infrastructure changes so there is very little reason to do nothing about it.

The reason I am bringing this up is because I travelled on public transport today to test the route to work with Sprog in a baby carrier- this was to avoid having to carry a pushchair up steps at my destination station.  On the way home, two other people boarded the tube with us, both of them took the priority seats which were the only free seats left in that carriage and were prepared to let me stand- they both proceeded to take out their book/Nintendo DS and settle in to their seats- but for the kindness of one of the other passengers.  This is outrageous!  People are rude and TFL are not doing enough to safeguard the rights of those less able to stand.  If the government wants to encourage working mums to stay in work then they need to do more to make it possible for mothers to take their offsprings to and from the nurseries./childcare facilities, home and work  Inadequate provisions for those less able to use stairs and to stand for long stretches of time on a moving vehicle are certainly not helping.

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