The Great Western Railway has launched a new mobile Customer Assistance Team to help passengers with reduced mobility.

In the past few weeks, the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) assistance team has helped over 500 customers travel on the railway with confidence.

Before the introduction of the assistance team passengers requiring assistance were helped onto a train by one colleague and met at their destination by another. In some cases, this meant they were unable to travel to smaller unstaffed stations.

GWR Mobility and Inclusion Manager Neil Craig said:

“Last year over 160,000 successfully used our assisted travel service, but we are always looking at how we can improve the service we offer and reduce barriers for those with disabilities to travel by train.

“We hope this new service will allow even more people to take advantage of our train services and will be monitoring its success closely.”

The Mobility Issues Group for Goring (MIGGS) Chair John Boler said:

“We welcome GWR’s commitment to the improvements sought by MIGGS, especially that Accessible Travel will apply to passengers whose mobility is impaired by age, as well as those disabled by illness or accident.

“The most important test of success will be whether the initiative encourages more elderly and mobility impaired people to travel by train. The biggest deterrent to date has been a fear of being stranded on a train or at stations late at night. We hope that this problem will soon be a thing of the past and wish the new mobile customer care assistant team well.”

Launched in December the team has now helped over 500 customers.