Edinburgh (TAN): Scottish railway company ScotRail has cut down on the amount of time required for disabled passengers to arrange assisted travel.
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While customers with restricted mobility had to book assisted travel at least three hours in advance earlier, they can now reserve the service two hours before their travel.
The company said the service will provide passengers ‘more flexibility in arranging short notice trips’.
ScotRail Access and Inclusion Manager Andrew Marshall said it was one of the ways for the company to ensure railway travel is accessible to everyone.
“We aim to provide assistance to anyone who needs help when travelling on our network, whether this has been booked in advance or not. By reducing the notice period to two hours, customers now have more freedom to plan spur of the moment trips,” he added.
ScotRail offers free assisted travel service to passengers in need of support while travelling on its train. Services range from providing wheelchairs to travellers with damaged eyesight to transporting heavy bags.
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ScotRail makes use of the two hours to position its employees at both the start and end of the journey so that there is always someone to help passengers with reduced mobility.
Last year alone, ScotRail provided over 250,000 assisted journeys, a 20 per cent growth over the previous three years, the train operator said.
Earlier this year, United Kingdom-based train operating company Virgin Trains introduced a voice-activated feature through Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ to improve its service for disabled passengers, especially those with visual impairment or mobility issues.
