Station audio guides help sight-loss passengers

New audio guides have been produced to help blind and partially sighted passengers navigate six railway stations across the network.

Developed by Sight Loss Council volunteers and accessibility managers at Govia Thameslink Railway, the guides cover Brighton and Eastbourne in East Sussex, London Blackfriars, Sutton in south-west London, Stevenage and Luton Airport Parkway stations.

The recordings allow passengers to familiarise themselves with station layouts and facilities before they travel.

Vince Duffy, accessibility improvement manager at Thameslink and Great Northern, said: "It basically just gives people a real visual idea of what our stations look like and the layout."

"We want to fill them with as much confidence as possible when travelling," he added.

Sam Leftwich, who co-authored the guides with the sight loss charity Thomas Pocklington Trust, said they could help reduce anxiety, particularly in busy stations.

Speaking while testing the system at Stevenage, she said: "As a community we like to prepare ourselves beforehand, and anything that we can do to inform us to help us be more confident is going to support us.

"Even for regular commuters, it's been really useful to help familiarise with actually what else is on offer at the station".

Guides can be found on the "support whilst you're travelling" pages of the Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern websites.

They cover Thameslink's trains, most of those operated by Southern and carriages running in and out of Moorgate on Great Northern.

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