On Track for Inclusive Train Travel: The Discovery Report

We're pleased to share the findings from On Track for Inclusive Train Travel. The Discovery Report presents the findings, outlines how disabled people experience train travel, and identifies opportunities to make the railway more welcoming for everyone.

On Track was a partnership project, and we were part of it. Funded by the Motability Foundation, it was delivered by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Community Rail Network, Community Rail Lancashire and GO Community Rail Partnership, which brings together Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire Community Rail Partnership (OxCRP).

The idea was simple: understand what helps, what gets in the way, and where we can make train travel better together.

What the report tells us

Disability awareness training matters, and there's plenty of it across the railway. This research shows that training does its best work when everything around it supports it, from staffing and daily pressures to the culture people work in.

There's a lot to feel positive about. Much of what's needed to improve is already there. The report suggests the biggest difference will come from better communication and feedback, from listening to lived experience when decisions are made, and from designing services together with disabled people.

What the findings show

The research points to some practical things the whole railway can build on. A few stood out to us.

• Training is well-established, and there's an opportunity to measure what matters most. It’s widespread across the sector and forms part of operators’ legal and regulatory responsibilities. The report suggests the next step is to look past how many people complete it, and towards the difference it makes to a disabled passenger's day.

• Staff want to help, and the right conditions to enable them to. The evidence shows that many rail staff want to help and have received disability awareness training. The opportunity is to ensure that staffing, timing, processes, and workplace support enable them to put that training into practice consistently.

• Small improvements across a journey add up. People notice the points where a journey joins up, like when moving from one station to a train or changing services. Clearer information, signage and announcements all came up as places where steady improvements make a real difference.

• It's why the work matters. Plenty of disabled passengers still face difficulties. Four in five respondents (82 per cent) said they'd experienced difficulties when travelling by train. In contrast, nearly a third (32 per cent) said they had decided not to travel because they did not expect their accessibility needs to be met. The encouraging part is that many of the building blocks for improvement are already in place.

• Coproduction and Feedback Loops matter. Having disabled people in the room where decisions are made makes a real difference in the impact and longevity of interventions. The work that many Train Operators are doing provides a good scaffold for this, but more work is needed to strengthen communication and embed lived experience deeper. 

From our team

Bee Clark, our Access and Inclusion Program Lead, said: “The conversations we had with disabled people in Gloucestershire brought home how much confidence depends on the whole journey feeling predictable and supportive. People spoke honestly about what makes travel harder, but also about the difference approachable staff, clear information and being listened to can make. Those experiences need to remain at the heart of how we work with our rail partners to improve journeys.”

What happens next

Thank you to everyone who gave their time, their experiences and their honesty. What you shared has helped build a clearer picture of what can improve, and of the good practice already out there, so the railway keeps working better for everyone.

Why this matters to us

Helping more people feel confident to travel by train is at the centre of everything we do. We take a grassroots, needs-based approach, working with our communities and our rail partners to understand what people actually need. We pay particular attention to people and communities who face barriers to rail travel, including disabled people, young people and people from a wide range of backgrounds.

You'll see that in our wider work. Through our Travelling with Confidence programme, we help people build the skills and confidence to use public transport, grow their independence and enjoy travelling by rail. Our Access Maps help people plan journeys to and from stations across Gloucestershire, bringing together accessible routes, onward travel options and useful local information. And our access and inclusion work keeps those needs at the forefront of mind as stations and services develop.

On Track gives us, and our partners across the railway, a shared foundation to keep building on. We’ll continue applying these findings across our wider access and inclusion work, alongside disabled people, communities and rail partners across Gloucestershire.

Read the reports and summaries.

• Discovery Report

• Plain English Summary

• Easy Read Summary

You can find out more about the wider On Track project on the Community Rail Network's On Track webpage.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss the findings and next steps: info@gloucestershirecommunityrail.org