Assisted Travel (Accessibility)

Operators need to make improvements to their management of passenger help points at stations, says the rail regulator, after a report highlights poor reliability and monitoring of service quality, particularly for stations in England.

The rail regulator wants to see an improvement plan from the train operator, who again rated poorly in ORR’s latest survey about the experience of passengers who pre-booked additional assistance with their journey.

- Regulator’s report on station lifts finds an average of more than six faults for each passenger lift over a year. - There’s been good progress on real-time information on lift availability, but more needs to be done across industry to make sure that all lifts can automatically report their status. - The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will take a deeper look at Network Rail’s approach to planning

The Office of Rail and Road has identified several key areas of focus for the industry as it looks to drive improvement in the delivery of passenger assistance for disabled passengers. The conclusions follow audits commissioned by the regulator into how five operators were meeting regulatory requirements related to the delivery of assistance.

Disabled people have had good and bad experiences of accessibility in rail.