Northern has identified key areas for improvements over the next year, which include:
- Ensuring passenger assistance policy and processes are consistent across the network
- Staff having the right capabilities to deliver the service and the ability to respond to challenges during times of disruption
- Making sure technologies, used to support passenger assistance, are utilised to provide consistency in service delivery
- Easier access to information needed by customers and staff
Northern has committed to progress work in the next three months, to review the staffing model for assistance at large stations; including Leeds Station, and provide additional staff training on communication between boarding and alighting stations; introduce a dedicated team to remotely support passengers who require assistance, using tools such as WhatsApp; and trialing a new process to allow passengers travelling from unstaffed stations who have not pre-booked, to alert conductors to their assistance needs.
ORR requested the plan from Northern in September and held a senior roundtable in October which enabled constructive engagement with the company as they developed their plan. The roundtable involved representatives from the Rail North Partnership, the Department for Transport, Transport for the North and the Northern User Accessibility Group.
Northern will now report regularly to ORR about how it is progressing with its plan, starting from December 2024. ORR will carry out a full review of the progress made at the end of January 2025 and again at the end of April.
Stephanie Tobyn, ORR director of strategy, policy and reform, said: