Services for disabled rail passengers – a consultation response

25 April 2018

In 2016-17, 1.2 million requests for assistance were booked by passengers to help them complete their journeys.  The overall number of passengers seeking travel assistance will be considerably higher than this figure; many passengers will have travelled without booking assistance in advance but will have received assistance.

The Office of Rail and Road asked for feedback on how well rail operators were providing this help. We know that, despite improvements, disabled passengers still don’t get the service they need.

Key areas for improvement are:

• higher presence of staff able to provide assistance
• shorter wait times for passengers requiring assistance at stations where the train terminates
• better coordination between staff at start and end of journey
• accurate, easy to understand information at time of booking.

Click here to see our response to the consultation in full.