Wheelchairs, scooters and ramps

At the station

When you arrive at any of our staffed stations, please approach any member of staff who will be able to assist you or organise a ramp to help you board one of our trains. If the station is unstaffed, please make your way to the platform. Once the train arrives, make yourself known to the guard.  Your safety is very important to us so please follow these simple steps when waiting on and moving around the station:

• Move behind the yellow line on the platform wherever possible
• When waiting for the train, try to wait on level ground with your brakes on.

On the train

All of our trains have at least two wheelchair bays. At busy times or on smaller trains we can’t guarantee a wheelchair bay to everyone, but you can reserve a bay on most of our longer distance journeys. It’s not possible to book a space on some of our London area trains, but most of these trains have at least two dedicated wheelchair spaces per train, and you usually won’t have long to wait for the next train if they all happen to be in use.

Please note that there are no wheelchair bays in First Class on our trains, and there's no wheelchair access to accessible toilets from First Class.

We are only able to accommodate Class 1 and Class 2 mobility scooters. If you have a Class 3 scooter or any questions, please contact our customer relations team so that we can work with you to try and accommodate you on our services.

Portable ramps

There are portable ramps on most of our trains and stations if you need one to help you get on and off your train. Book ahead for Assisted Travel to make sure we can have ramps ready.

Please offer me a seat badge

At SWR we do not offer a seat reservation service, but if you are unable to stand on a busy train, or you feel awkward asking other customers to give up their seat for you, there is an option for you that we hope will help you travel comfortably and safely.

Like the ‘Baby on Board’ Badges, SWR have launched a ‘Please offer me a seat’ badge which we can send to you if you feel awkward in asking other customers to give up their seat if you are unable to stand for the duration of your journey.

Badges are available at the following ticket offices:

• Axminster
• Basingstoke
• Bournemouth
• Clapham Junction
• Ryde Esplanade
• Farnborough Main
• Guildford
• Honiton
• London Waterloo
• Poole
• Portsmouth Harbour
• Richmond
• Salisbury
• Southampton Central
• Weymouth
• Winchester
• Wimbledon

Priority Seat Cards

At SWR we do not offer a reservation service for seats but if you find it difficult to stand on a busy train, or you feel awkward asking other customers to give up their seat for you, we now offer a Priority Seat Card, either via email or a physical card, which we hope will help you travel comfortably and safely.

SWR are working with other Train Operating Companies in our area to offer Priority Seat Cards for customers. These cards are valid on SWR, Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern, Gatwick Express and South Eastern services.

Priority seating is available on all our trains. The priority seats are usually near the doors and are marked with a priority seat sign.

If you are pregnant, over 65, have a disability or have a child under 3 years old you can apply for a card online by using the button below:

Request your priority seat card here

Please note – This card does not guarantee you a seat on one of our trains but it will help avoid the difficulty of asking someone to give up their seat.

When travelling, you will still need a valid train ticket for your entire journey. The priority seat card does not allow you to use the First Class seats unless you have a valid First Class ticket.

We have a guard on every train. If you need any further support, please speak with the guard on the train who will be happy to help.

Powered Mobility Scooters

Powered scooters come in all shapes and sizes, and unfortunately some are unsuitable for train travel on the SWR network. If you wish to take your scooter on our trains, it is best to have a mobility scooter permit. These can be obtained from our customer contact centre, either by completing the online form below or accessing the PDF form here.

We are now able to send you your mobility scooter card electronically via email, if you would like to receive the card in this format, please specify on the form.

Alternatively, you can still receive your scooter card in the post, but please be aware that this could take up to 10 working days to arrive.

Please note that we are only able to accommodate Class 1 and Class 2 mobility scooters. If you have a Class 3 scooter or any questions, please contact our customer relations team so that we can work with you to try and accommodate you on our services.

Request your powered mobility scooter card here

We also have mobility scooter size guide mats at the following stations to support your travel with us if you don’t have a scooter permit:

• Basingstoke
• Bournemouth
• Clapham Junction
• Cosham
• Portsmouth & Southsea
• Richmond
• Ryde Esplanade
• Ryde Pier Head
• Salisbury
• Shanklin
• Southampton Central
• Surbiton
• Vauxhall
• Wimbledon
• Woking

Coming soon – Mobility scooter size guide mats will be available at all SWR step free stations, allowing you to measure the size of your scooter to ensure that it is safe to travel on one of our trains.