Improving access to rail services for disabled passengers

How can a rail network operator improve its service for disabled people and ensure that disabled customers get the assistance they need to travel? 

A visually impaired customer who received inadequate support and assistance while travelling with the service challenged London North Eastern Railway’s (LNER’s) provisions.

LNER runs trains to the North of England and Scotland from London. 

Under the Equality Act 2010, businesses must make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not unfairly disadvantaged. We were concerned by LNER’s failure to provide passenger assistance and their breach of the duty to provide anticipatory reasonable adjustments. 

On 9 July 2020, we used our enforcement powers to enter into a legally binding Section 23 agreement with LNER. This required them to improve their assisted travel service and to conduct new training on accessibility and inclusion for all staff who deal with their customers.  

Under the agreement, LNER were required to improve their assisted travel service and to conduct new training on accessibility and inclusion for all staff who deal with their customers. 

LNER also set up new ways to monitor the assistance it provides, and to learn lessons and find new solutions where needed. 

In addition, the rail operator has established a disability access forum to generate further improvement initiatives. These include a new wheelchair space booking feature and a 24-hour booking service for passenger assistance requests. 

After formally monitoring the action plan, we believed LNER had a better understanding of the reasons why its assistance to disabled customers failed previously and that the company had made the necessary changes to improve their services and facilities for disabled passengers.