Northern wins national business award for innovative approach to accessible rail travel

The train operator recognised that more needed to be done to reduce travel anxiety and make journeys easier to plan and make. 

The Accessible Travel Simulation “Serious Game” won the Customer Service Excellence category at the Rail Business Awards this week and has been developed to support people who are anxious or need Passenger Assistance, including disabled customers and those with hidden conditions, to build confidence to travel by train. 

The awards, which are in their 25th year, celebrate achievements in every aspect of the industry, from daily operations, safety and customer service to technical innovation and major projects and recognises operators, suppliers, and infrastructure providers from across the country in 16 hotly contested categories.  

Users can now choose a character and scenario that represents their needs and experience trains, stations and interact with staff in a realistic simulated environment on their own phones, tablets, PCs or in Virtual Reality headsets for a fully immersive experience. 

This first of a kind digital solution has been developed by Northern with lead partner Chrome Angel Solutions and digital technology experts Totem Learning, working closely with industry partners Angel Trains and Community Rail Lancashire. The team won funding from the Department for Transport’s Accessibility Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG: Accessibility) programme delivered by Connected Places Catapult to develop and test a proof-of-concept demonstrator. 

Maxine Myers, accessibility improvement manager at Northern, said: “This amazing new app will give confidence to some of our customers, and even prospective rail travellers to enable them to take independent journeys. We want to support our customers whenever they need it.” 

The team is continuing to develop the simulation from the user testing and is now rapidly expanding pilot testing as well as demonstrating to passenger and disability groups across the network. 

Angel Trains and Northern have recently jointly funded VR headsets for Community Rail Lancashire to take the game into classrooms as part of their educational programme that supports thousands of children each year. 

Northern is working hard to make rail travel more accessible for everyone with projects such as its mobility scooter permit scheme.  

More mobility scooters than ever can now travel to and from more stations than ever before across the network bringing the total to more than 160 stations across 28 routes.    

For the safety of all passengers, anyone travelling on a mobility scooter must first obtain a permit from Northern to ensure the model they use meets certain size and manoeuvrability specifications.  

The scheme is free and registered passengers are given a personalised sticker that will be easily identified and be placed on the pre-assessed vehicle. This will be accompanied by a card that can be carried by customers if they use scooters that don’t have a suitable place to display the sticker.