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SWR supports Travel with Confidence project

South Western Railway (SWR) has joined with Hampshire County Council (HCC) to support ‘Travel with Confidence’ – a project to help those travelling with non-visible disabilities.

The project, which is organised by Hampshire Community Rail Partnership (CRP), aims to provide information and training on how to enjoy travelling by public transport for people who have non-visible disabilities such as autism, anxiety, or phobias which can make travelling by bus or train a difficult experience.

The first phase of the project, funded by HCC Adult Services, was completed by the CRP with the publication of a booklet of resources called ‘Help is at Hand’ after extensive consultation with local disability groups. This booklet is a wonderful resource which can be shared with groups and organisations supporting people with non-visible disabilities.

The project’s second phase is now underway, supported by SWR. This sees Hampshire CRP and other groups working with Winchester Go LD, a local charity, to teach people with non-visible disabilities how to travel with confidence. They will also be helping learning disability groups with individual travel planning resources followed by visits to stations and rail journeys together.

Winchester Go LD is also producing video resources which teach important skills such as boarding trains safely and how to seek help at stations. SWR has previously supported with a ‘try the train’ trip, where community ambassadors help reassure and educate those who have not travelled by train before, or those who have limited experience on the railway, to help them see that it can be an accessible mode of transport that everyone can feel comfortable using. This project also encourages greater independent travel in the longer term.

Paula Aldridge, SWR’s Community Rail Manager said: “SWR is always looking for ways to improve access to railway travel and so we were delighted to support Hampshire CRP’s project.

“We want all our customers to feel confident and comfortable on our services and we hope these resources and the work that Winchester Go LD are doing will make their future journeys on public transport easier.”

Image credit: SWR

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Autism-friendly guide to travelling by train

By Rail Business UK 2021-12-21T05:00:00+00:00

UK: Network Rail has worked with the National Autistic Society to produce an online guide help autistic people travel by train independently and with confidence.

The guide shows the sights and sounds passengers could experience during every stage of a journey, from purchasing tickets, to getting to the right platform, to finding a seat. There are links to examples of sounds that could be heard at a busy station, and photographs of common signs, departure boards and uniformed staff to ask for help. There is also advice on how to get to a station and what to bring.

‘Stations can be noisy and busy places, and although our staff are very well trained to provide assistance, and to recognise when people may need extra help, we also realise that some people may be put off travelling as they simply don’t know what to expect’, said Susan Holden, Network Rail’s Stations Customer Experience Manager.

‘The idea of this guide is that it will take you through every step of a journey, with clear information, pictures and sounds, so you can familiarise yourself before you set off. We’ve had invaluable input from NAS, and we’re confident it should really help anyone who’s anxious or unsure about rail travel.’

Autism friendly guide to travelling by train

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Helping people with non-visible disabilities to Travel with Confidence

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UK: Information and training to help people with non-visible disabilities such as autism, anxiety or phobias use public transport is being provided by Hampshire Community Rail Partnership with the support of South Western Railway and Hampshire County Council. The first phase of the Travel with Confidence ...

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21 June 2021, 16:07

Flexi Season tickets now available for South Western Railway customers

• A new Flexi Season ticket is available to buy from today and can be used from Monday 28 June.       
• This new product will offer SWR customers more flexibility - enabling people to travel on any eight days in a 28-day period – and could lead to significant financial savings.
• From today, SWR customers also can change advance ticket bookings to a different date or time for no extra cost.

South Western Railway (SWR) customers who split their time between home and the office are set to save money and enjoy more flexible travel thanks to a new ticketing product which is available to buy from today.

The new Flexi Season ticket will replace SWR’s Carnet tickets and enable customers to travel on any eight days in a 28-day period. From Monday 28 June, customers will be able to enjoy unlimited travel between the same two stations on their chosen days, with the product being valid across the SWR network and beyond.

Part-time commuters could benefit from the new product through significant financial savings. For example, a Flexi Season ticket holder travelling between Woking and London Waterloo on two days a week would save over £250 a year when compared to the cost of daily tickets.

Flexi Seasons will be entirely contactless, meaning customers will need to obtain a SWR smartcard before purchasing the new product through the SWR app, website or a ticket office. To activate one of their eight day passes, customers are required to place their smartcard on a gate or smartcard validator, allowing them to travel between their chosen stations.

SWR is urging customers to check a new season ticket calculator to confirm which type of ticket is best for them. This tool is available here: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/season-calculator.aspx

In line with the rest of the industry, SWR is also taking part in the new ‘Book with confidence’ initiative, which allows advance ticket bookings to be changed to a different time or date fee-free, until 31 December 2021. The change, which is also introduced today, means that SWR customers can book train tickets safe in the knowledge that that they won’t be out of pocket if plans or circumstances change.

Commenting, SWR’s Commercial Director, Peter Williams, said:

“We are delighted to be able to offer the new Flexi Season ticket, which is on sale from today and available to use in a week’s time.

“This product will offer the flexibility and value for money that so many of our customers need in the aftermath of a pandemic which has fundamentally altered working patterns.

“We are also pleased to be part of the ‘Book with confidence’ initiative, which enables our customers to change the date and time of Advance tickets for free. We have all got used to plans changing quickly and unexpectedly, and we want to do all we can to ensure that our customers don't lose out when they do.

“As these and other improvements show, we are determined build back a better and more flexible railway, fit for the post-pandemic world”.  

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

“Our railways work best when they are reliable, rapid and affordable.

“As we kickstart the biggest reforms to our railways in a generation, flexible season tickets are the first step. They give us greater freedom and choice about how we travel, simpler ticketing and a fairer fare.

“With a season ticket calculator to see which option works best for you, and a book with confidence guarantee to make journeys stress-free, the future of fares is flexible”.

Contact Information

Toby Williams [email protected]

Notes to editors

Flexi Season ticket – pricing:

• Flexi Season tickets have been priced relative to the options passengers already have on their route.
• That means they provide better value and convenience for most commuters travelling two to three days a week, compared to existing daily tickets or traditional season tickets.
• The Flexi Season ticket will offer a minimum 20% discount on the equivalent monthly season ticket.

‘Book with confidence’ :

If your plans change, you can amend date and time of Advanced tickets fee free up until 6pm the day before you travel, and until 31/12/21. Fare price difference may apply. Advance tickets purchased online can be exchanged for a voucher for future journey. Fee free changes also apply to Off Peak and Anytime tickets, up to the date of departure.

For more information on Flexi Season tickets, visit: https://www.southwesternrailway.com/train-tickets/season-tickets/flexible-train-tickets

SWR London Waterloo

South Western Railway

Operating over 1,500 services each weekday, SWR employs more than 5,000 people and provides commuter inter-urban, regional and long distance services to customers in South West London, the southern counties of England and the Isle of Wight.

As well as commuters and business travellers, SWR transports leisure travellers across the region, to many tourist and heritage sites, and the numerous major sporting and social events that take place along the route every year.

We provide easy and convenient mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and communities.

FirstGroup plc (LSE: FGP.L) is a leading private sector provider of public transport services.

We create solutions that reduce complexity, making travel smoother and life easier. Our businesses are at the heart of our communities and the essential services we provide are critical to delivering wider economic, social and environmental goals.

For more information about FirstGroup, please visit www.firstgroupplc.com.

MTR connects people and communities every day. As a recognised world-class operator of sustainable rail transport services, MTR is a leader in safety, reliability, customer service and efficiency.

MTR has extensive end-to-end railway expertise with more than 40 years of railway projects experience from design to planning and construction through to commissioning, maintenance and operations. Going beyond railway delivery and operation, MTR also creates and manages dynamic communities around its network through seamless integration of rail, commercial and property development.

With more than 40,000 dedicated staff, MTR carries over 12.7 million passenger journeys worldwide every weekday in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Macao and the Mainland of China. MTR strives to grow and connect communities for a better future.

For more information about MTR Corporation, please visit www.mtr.com.hk.

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Assisting disabled passengers: South Western Rail’s new assistance scheme

Travelling as a disabled passenger can be a stressful, anxiety inducing experience which involves booking railway assistance hours or even days in advance to ensure help will be available on arrival. South Western Rail’s (SWR) launch of a new assistance scheme sees disabled passengers being able to turn up and receive assistance ten minutes before travelling, rather than pre-planning.

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With over 14 million disabled individuals in the UK, the importance of railway assistance in the form of staff members on hand, ramps and other accessibility solutions, is imperative to ensure these passengers receive all the help they require for their journey.

At present if assistance is required by a disabled or older passenger this must be booked in advance to ensure staff at the station and on trains are able to provide the help that is needed. This process adds an extra layer of planning to travel which can impact the overall enjoyment of a spontaneous trip.

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Heathrow express.

Launched by SWR the ‘assisted boarding points’ – which will be located on SWR 189 stations – will allow passengers to interact with a QR code which will send details of their journey and assistance required to SWR staff.

Alan Benson, who sits on SWR’s accessibility panel and chairs Transport for All – the only UK disability organisation who exclusively focuses on transport – discusses the new service and how he has been impacted by accessibility rail issues.

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Frankie Youd (FY): Could you tell me about the new assistance scheme and how it works?

Alan Benson (AB):  In an ideal world I would roll up to the station in my wheelchair, I’d get on the train, just like everybody else, and get off the other end. The problem of course is railway staff are busy doing other things. Historically the railway companies have always said you need to contact us 24 hours in advance for book assistance, that’s not always been successful.

Train companies one by one have been implementing their own solutions for this. SWR have implemented ‘assisted boarding points’ at un-staffed stations. At these points there’s a poster on the wall with a QR code, and a phone number. The QR code takes you to WhatsApp or you can ring the phone number.

You say I’m at this station, I’m going to wherever you’re going to, tell them the assistance that you need, they will then contact a guard on the next train, warn the guard that you’re there so when they arrive they’ll come and find you and help you on the train.

We’ve gone from two to three hours planning ahead to turning up at the station and it taking 10 or 15 minutes.

When is this scheme going to available? Have you tested it?

It is available now, they’ve been testing it for six months I think. Unfortunately, they came up with the idea just before Covid-19, so when everybody stopped travelling that made the testing a bit difficult. The idea is to give disabled people sight of their booking, if you ring up and book you’ve got no evidence that it’s been booked – with this you have got an acknowledgement and you know what’s going on.

I do have dexterity issues so using a mobile phone is not easiest thing in the world. So, for me it wasn’t the easiest solution, but having said that it’s a lot better than the other alternatives.

Obviously, there’s some issues. If you’re blind or partially sighted and can’t see the poster – it’s no good to you. If you’ve not got a mobile phone, it’s no good to you. If you’re blind or partially sighted because the number on the WhatsApp is the same across the network you could pre-set up your phone before when you’re at home, but that takes a bit of planning.

How have you been impacted by lack of accessibility while travelling?

The thing that enables most people to travel is confidence that the solution will work, it’s really hard to build up confidence, but very easy to destroy. Everybody I know has been left on a train beyond their destination. It’s so common that the railway industry has a name for it: being over carried.

There was one occasion where I had an assistant with me, she got off the train to find me a ramp or some platform staff. The door shut and the train left while she’s still on the platform and I’m on the train. Only one quarter of the stations are accessible to disabled users so I couldn’t get off at the next station and turn around because it’s not accessible. It was another four stations before there was one that I could get off at and turn around.

Do you think the industry should be doing more within this area?

I have been doing this for about 10 years and the resistance that you come up with, particularly in the rail industry, the basic response is: “we can’t do that because we’ve always done it this way.”

The rail industry is particularly inert and resistant to change. There are some people in the industry who are really committed to making change, but the barrier we always come up against is particularly around health and safety.

What we learned during Covid-19 is when push comes to shove the industry can change, and it can change very quickly if it needs to. If enough motivation is there it can change, that gives us as campaigners some hope.

However, the other thing that’s come out of Covid-19 is all of the initiatives, all of the staff training concerning disabled passengers has been put to one side because everybody’s been focusing on Covid. There’s a lot of new members of staff on the railway, they’ve not been able to be trained properly because they can’t do large meetings.

The other thing is that disabled people haven’t been travelling, many of them have been isolating – railway staff have got out of that habit of helping them. What we’re seeing is that the level of service has gone down since the pandemic, the number of stories on Twitter that you’re seeing about people being left on trains, and people not being able to get on trains during the pandemic has increased.

I have been quite disappointed by the assistance kings cross station recently they’re ability to meet disabled people of the train has been quite appalling. Today no one met me or the wheelchair user in the carriage of the train today and no platform staff anywhere to be seen — Guide dog and blind moments (@dog_moments) July 23, 2021

Where have you noticed change within the industry?

Heathrow Express was step free with level boarding: Paddington to Heathrow the trains were level access I didn’t need assistance to get on one. In an ideal world as a wheelchair user, I would like to be able to just get on and off trains. If there was no gap, if there was no step then I wouldn’t need a ramp.

They’ve just replaced the whole fleet with a new fleet of trains that are not level access, so they have taken a really big step backwards. Whereas I used to just turn up and roll on then roll off, now I need assistance, now I need a ramp. This is an example where things are getting worse.

On the positive side you look at Greater Anglia, they’ve just bought new trains that have ramps built into them. I turn up and wheel on and off, they are much safer in terms of platform to train interface. Mersey Rail are just about to introduce a new fleet of trains, they are also level access. What they’ve done is they’ve altered all the platforms across the network, so that now you don’t need a ramp at any of their stations.

There are shining examples of good practice, but mixed in with them are some dreadful examples of taking steps backwards.

What would you like the future to hold?

The rail industry has been training platform staff, training the passenger facing staff in disability equality for the last 10 years. Most of that training hasn’t been delivered by disabled people. I strongly believe that if you’re going to train about disability equality then disabled people ought to be doing it.

I would like to see the rail industry train the back-office staff, the project managers, the senior managers, the directors, and get them out on the network with disabled people to see what their journeys are like. This is something that Transport for All has been doing with London Underground. The interesting thing is, they come away from that training realising that with the decisions that they make every day it’s within their power to make a difference.

I think with all the government initiatives, the National Disability Strategy, all of these things are great – but until the senior managers understand the impact that they can have, that’s what’s going to make the difference. We need accessibility to be considered in the same way that health and safety is. Health and safety is at the heart of every decision – if you put accessibility up there as well that’s how we will get significant change.

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Our scores on the latest National Rail Passenger Survey

Results from Transport Focus' Spring 2020 wave of the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) were released in early July 2020, revealing a satisfaction score of 75%.

Whilst we are disappointed with the results, we are not surprised. Punctuality and reliability are the biggest drivers of satisfaction and this research was carried out during a particularly challenging time for our customers:

• a month-long strike by the RMT in December,
• two months dominated by severe weather, and
• a major freight train derailment which affected the network for several days.

Overall Satisfaction

You can find a breakdown of scores against our franchise targets below.

Despite the devastating impact of COVID-19 across the globe, we are working hard behind the scenes to make headway in improving services.

We are continuing to work with Network Rail to improve performance and have already seen signs of improvement, and we’ve recently welcomed the first of our new £1 billion suburban trains for testing this summer. As well as providing a step-change in customer experience, these new trains offer a significant opportunity to improve performance by using modern technology to reduce station dwell times on some of our busiest routes.

We’re also investing in our stations with a £1.5 million repainting programme and new cycle facilities, benches and waiting shelters; as well as investing in Wi-Fi for our trains and across all our stations.

You can find the full results in the Transport Focus NRPS Report .

Engineering works will affect your journey

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