If you need assistance navigating the station or a ramp to get on your train, our passenger assistance service can help. Whether you book assistance in advance or not, our teams are here to help. Booking in advance with our Assisted Travel service helps to ensure that we can have everything in place to help you. The national booking system operates across the National Rail network.
You can request Assisted Travel at any point during your journey. To make sure we have staff available to help you, we recommend you book 2 hours in advance of travelling. If your journey involves another train company and we need to confirm this part of your journey with them, it might depend on their contact centre opening hours to enable us to confirm. If this is the case, we will discuss options with you.
Get in touch with our station staff at staffed stations once you've arrived, and we'll take care of the rest. If you're at an unstaffed station, make your way to the platform, and we'll do our best to let the on-board team know you're boarding. Give yourself plenty of time when you arrive so that we can make sure you're in the right place on the platform to board the train. You can check the facilities at stations across Great Britain with our station finder.
To make an Assisted Travel booking, contact our Assisted Travel team 24 hours a day, every day except 25 and 26 December:
- Call 0800 52 82 100 (freephone) to speak to our in-house Assisted Travel Team.
- National Rail Enquiries also operate a 24-hour dedicated travel assistance line by calling 08000 22 37 20.
- Text Relay service 18001 0800 52 82 100. Using the text relay service is easy - simply add 18001 before the number, or download the app. A relay assistant will type back anything the hearing person says at the other end of the call.
- Download the Passenger Assist app. More information is available here.
- Go to the Passenger Assistance Website at: https://booking.passengerassistance.com
Find out about taking a wheelchair or motorised scooter on the train
Accessibility on our trains and stations
A guard on every train
We’ve produced this short video for all our customers as a reminder to be kind to others.
We have a guard on every train we operate to help you with your journey. On the journey, you can expect our guard to be making important announcements such as where they are on the train and providing important journey information. If you’ve requested assistance, or think you might need some, our guards are there to help, and many of our guards are trained to check and sell tickets.
Accessible rail replacement vehicles during planned engineering works
Wherever possible, we try to ensure that rail replacement vehicles are accessible to you. However, not all coaches available to us have wheelchair access and we are working with government and our suppliers to increase their availability and supply. To ensure we can meet your needs during engineering work, use the form below to book in advance so that there isn’t a wait at the station if you require an alternative vehicle and your journey can go smoothly.
Useful documents
If you require these documents in any other format (for example large print or braille) please get in touch with our customer service team.
Get 1/3 off train tickets for yourself and a friend at any time with a Disabled Persons Railcard.
If things go wrong
Station facilities
Sometimes, facilities at the station or on the train may break down. We'll do our best to get them fixed as soon as possible, and let you know through our Journeycheck information page. To find out more about facilities we're working to repair:
- Head to our Journeycheck information page.
- Click the "Station Updates" drop-down menu for station information.
- Click the "Other Train Service Updates" for onboard facilities information.
If booked assistance hasn't been available or failed
In the event that we've not been able to provide you with assistance that you've booked then please get in touch. You'll also be entitled to compensation from us if our assistance arrangements have failed.
