“We will work to provide an inclusive railway, which is available to as many people as possible through positive moves to increase accessibility and affordability.”
Although the railway is now in private hands it is still public transport and it makes both moral and good business sense to ensure it is open to as many people as possible. Many people rely on us to get not just to work, but to the doctor, dentist, school or shops. By being innovative with fares and schemes such as community railways we can ensure we offer railways for all.
Affordability Reduced-rate rail cards - South West Trains is part of a national scheme of reduced-rate rail cards available for young people, older people and disabled people.
Around 20,000 reduced-rate cards are sold every 4-weekly period on South West Trains, with around 400,000 tickets purchased using them every period.
Megatrain – this innovation in ticketing offers a whole new concept in value travel. For as little as £1 passengers can travel on nine selected South West Trains routes, making rail travel affordable for all. So far over 200,000 people have made use of this internet-based product, with the website attracting over 2,00,000 hits since the launch in November 2005.
Accessibility – we are committed to meeting the travelling needs of our passengers with disabilities and providing excellent customer service. We recognise that there are a wide range of disabilities that affect our passengers and that these disabilities require us to adjust the way we provide our service. Where practicable we will provide equipment at our stations to enable employees to make these reasonable adjustments and offer excellent customer service to our passengers with disabilities. We make all “reasonable efforts” to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, allowing for the fact that we do not own our stations, many of which were built in a less enlightened age.
Access Manager – South West Trains has created this post to try and ensure we make our rail network as accessible as possible. We operate an assisted travel line to encourage disabled travellers to book ahead so that we can make arrangements to ensure their journey goes as smoothly as possible. We also provide induction loops in our ticket offices and large print timetables to assist independent travellers with special needs. While, due to their historic nature, not all of our stations are accessible for disabled travellers, all of our trains now have ramps and dedicated wheelchair areas. As a company we offer taxis to disabled passengers whose local station is inaccessible. We also give all our frontline staff disability awareness training to enable them to get the best perspective on what travelling by train is like for disabled passengers.
Community rail at Lymington – the branch line linking Brockenhurst to Lymington provides a vital link for residents and holidaymakers alike. During Cowes Week the line comes into its own, but outside of this busy holiday period it is difficult to generate the passenger numbers to make the line economic. To try and help guarantee the future of the line South West Trains has created a heritage line that offers an additional reason for people to travel on the route and also reduces the running costs by using refurbished heritage stock, rather than expensive new modern trains which would make this tiny rail line uneconomic to run. The DfT is now concluding consultation regarding the proposed designation of the route as a Community Rail Line.
Guide Dogs for the Blind – South West Trains is part of an industry wide initiative which provides free travel to “puppy walkers”.
New trains – our new Desiro fleet provides much improved travel facilities for disabled passengers. They have replaced old slam door trains where wheelchair users were forced to travel in the guards van, with no disabled toilet and with no visual information system. The Desiro trains have dedicated disabled facilities, including disabled toilets, audible and visual passenger information systems, push-button entry and exit, assistance alarms and wider doors.
Better integration – by providing a number of add ons through bus tickets and two dedicated rail/bus links to Romsey and Liphook we help to connect rural communities with the mainline railway and provide accessibility to those members of the community without cars.
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