Tile Hill railway station near Coventry hold’s a special place in my heart because as a 16/17 year whilst studying at nearby Hereward College I started my journey home to Hereford every Friday evening on the platforms at the station.
When I started at the college in the September of 2012 I didn’t have the best relationship with trains because of previous experiences as a wheelchair user with them.
Residential care staff at the college supported me to rebuild my confidence with this mode of public transport by us taking trips into the likes of Coventry and Birmingham on a regular basis.
As a result of this extensive rebuilding of confidence exercise by the time I left the college in the June of 2014, I loved trains once again and was taking them home to Hereford every week independently.
This is the reason why I asked the team at London Northwestern Railway if it was possible for the station to have the new accessibility tools that have been installed at other stations that they manage across the region.
As I have mentioned previously “Promoting Individual Achievement” is at the heart of everything that Hereward stands for, the tools will allow the current cohort of students and those who follow them in the years to come to travel independently with friends or family by rail from the station.
I often think about my time at Hereward wondering if I could have achieved so much more with the support of both the teaching and residential staff, the answer to that question will never be revealed.
2026 will be the year that Hereward’s current students get to “individually achieve” something by having access to tools which will hopefully see them have some freedom to use railways.
Accessibility tools on the platforms at the station back in 2012 would have 100% made it easier for me to travel home by rail without fear of running into a number of difficulties along the way.
In the mean time, if you are someone who travels by rail on a regular basis and requires some assistance with boarding or disembarking trains your assisted travel can be booked up to 2 hours before departure in 1 of 3 ways:
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.
However you do have a legal right to just turn up and go without booking any assistance prior to travel.
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Cam
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