Improving access for all passengers

Relevant RTS critical priority(ies):
Easy to use for all

Innovation has an important role to play in making life easier for passengers and helping staff provide better customer service.

In September 2017, RSSB launched the Accessibility Innovation competition to find new ways to improve access to the railway for disabled passengers, including those with less visible impairments. The innovators unveiled their solutions in late 2019 and continued discussions with industry partners. Innovators now have the technology and capability, and more could be developed given the grants and co-funding opportunities available, but industry commitment and level of adoption needs to improve for this to become a positive and virtuous circle.

The solutions developed include:

Training and app for deaf and hard-of-hearing people by Signit – signly.co

Eleven million people in the UK have hearing impairments. This project developed a toolkit to train staff in British Sign Language (BSL) and an app providing key customer information in BSL. So far, Arriva Rail London has made use of the former.

App to support people with dementia – Welcome Aboard

850,000 people in the UK live with dementia, and this number is set to rise to over a million by 2025. The Welcome Aboard app provides two-way communication between passengers and staff, and a ‘check-in’ feature to alert staff to a passenger’s arrival at the station. Welcome Aboard is installed at Waverley Station but not yet live due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and hopefully the planned pilot can happen in the near-by future.

Journey planner for people with autism – Aubin

The Aubin app is a journey planner with a difference. Rather than focusing on the shortest journey time or lowest cost as other planners do, it allows people on the autistic spectrum to plan their journeys to minimise factors they may find stressful – such as changing trains or busy stations.

Contact RSSB to have more information on these and the other new solutions developed. RSSB can also help put operators in touch with the innovator to discuss piloting and taking up of these solutions.