Abstract: A curbside lift apparatus for transferring wheelchair passengers to and from trains and public transit vehicles using existing pedestrian passenger entryways. Free-standing base wall structures support parallel guide tracks inclined toward the transit vehicle, such that a passenger lift car guided by such tracks and carried by chain and sprocket elevator means between the wall structures advances toward and retracts from the passenger vehicle in being raised and lowered, thereby shortening the crossover distance between vehicle passenger deck and lift car spanned by a hinged bridge on the lift car lowered to the deck. Simplified, enclosed, vandal-resistant construction of the mechanical apparatus and an automatic sequencing control system for the same accessible only to an authorized attendant assure prompt, safe operation of the apparatus under various contingencies.

Abstract: The latest in a series of wheelchair lift improvements is provided, the basic lift structure on which the improvements are made being the type utilizing a step configuration, the individual panels of which, being hinged together, are simply extended into a geometrical plane rather than a step structure. The resulting platform is then elevationally adjusted by the driver to commute the platform, and a wheelchair victim on the platform, between the curb and bus floor level. The improvements include the hydraulic drive for deploying the mechanism between step and platform mode, the safety barrier structure which defines an extension of the platform to the curb level when it is dropped from its safety barrier mode, a safety locking mechanism and a stablizing chain.