When I first contacted the team at West Midlands Trains in February last year to raise concerns about the assisted travel provision being offered by them at some of the unstaffed stations they manage I didn’t think it would have a regional impact.
I met with some of the incredible people from the operator at Witton Lane station on the 28th of November, 2023, where I was able to show them some of the challenges that I and others with mobility issues face when travelling to and from stations that aren’t staffed all of the time.
As conversations started around what could be done to solve the issues that I was raising in particularly about Witton Lane station which situated close to Villa Park, the home of Aston Villa Football Club I suggested trialling accessible waiting spaces at the station.
Much to my surprise the team from WMT agreed with this suggestion and started to figure out how they were going to make this become a reality, this led to another trip to the station a few weeks later to help determine where the spaces would be positioned on each of the platforms.
The spaces were finally installed at the end of January this year on the platforms at Witton with Aston station just down the line following suit just a few months later in early May, the initial trails were deemed such a success leading to other stations being selected to have the spaces installed in the future.
Since May 2024 a number of other stations around our region have seen the introduction of the spaces and they are The Hawthorns, Coventry Arena, Kenilworth, Worcester Foregate Street and Worcester Shrub Hill.
If you are a regular rail passenger and travel to or from one of the stations that I have just mentioned above please can I ask that you are mindful of where you stand on the platforms because those requiring mobility assistance will need access to the spaces at all times whilst waiting for trains.
My message to the team at West Midlands Trains is this, you are incredible and there are simply not enough words that I can use to describe how what you have made happen in the last 12 months for our community means to me, thank so much for taking me seriously.
I hope that the communities living across our region will be able to travel with ease and confidence if they require assistance to board trains.
Do you travel by rail on a regular basis and require assistance to either board or disembark services, if the answer is yes there are a number of different ways that you can use to book your assisted travel up to 2 hours before departure and they are:
By Phone: 0800 024 8998 or by using Next Generation Text – 18001 0800 024 8998
Online: https://booking.passengerassistance.com.
Using the App: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/passenger-assistance/id1542190496.
If you would like to read more from me within just a few minutes of my latest post being published then why not subscribe and receive future posts straight into your inbox.
Subscribe: https://just-being-cp.co.uk/
I would like to thank each and everyone of you, my loyal readers and followers for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest post as soon as it has been published it doesn’t go unnoticed and is of course very much appreciated.
Cam
Leave a Reply