Audio guides for blind come to railway stations

Audio guides for blind and partially sighted people have come to six railway stations, including two in Sussex.

The guides help passengers familiarise themselves with station and train layouts before they travel.

They have been introduced at Brighton, Eastbourne, as well as London Blackfriars, Sutton, Stevenage and Luton Parkway.

The scheme has been introduced by Sight Loss Council volunteers and staff at Greater Thameslink Railway (GTR).

Dave Smith, who works for sight loss charity Thomas Pocklington Trust, said the idea came about because websites show a birds-eye-view map of the stations, which he said was not accessible to those who are blind or partially sighted.

He said: "We wrote a guide that replicates those [maps] in a way where a blind or partially sighted person can orientate themselves.

"It can be daunting, stations can be big open spaces with planters, seating and platforms which can be dangerous as well."

Carl Martin, accessibility lead for GTR, said: "It enables us to understand what matters most and, through lived experience, look at solutions to improve people's confidence to travel."

Martin says GTR is encouraging people to give feedback on the audio guides so the company can potentially introduce them to more stations.

Guides have also been written for Thameslink's trains and most of those operated by Southern, as well as for carriages running in and out of Moorgate on Great Northern.

Blind and partially sighted people came to Eastbourne Station to give their thoughts on the audio guides.

Clinton Corin said: "This is a good step having these audio guides. I think it would be useful if I don't know the station at all.

Miriam Holdstock said: "It's very informative, I thought I knew the station quite well but I've learnt quite a few extra bits about it."

David Best added: "The audio is really helpful for me because I do everything by memory. I found it really descriptive, the [description] of the floor changing, and walking around the station clockwise."

The audio guides can be found on Southern Rail, Thameslink and Great Northern websites.