Northern and TGA have partnered up, aiming to make train travel easier with a mobility scooter or wheelchair.

Northern is currently working on making more of its stations and trains accessible to passengers who struggle with mobility.

The work by Northern so far means that people can travel from over 160 stations, on 28 routes, using a scooter or wheelchair.

To help increase awareness of the improvements and help more passengers access trains with mobility aids, TGA have teamed up with them.

All powerchairs and wheelchairs can be taken on accessible routes, only certain smaller mobility scooters are permitted.

Passengers can apply for a free permit on Northerns website which allow passengers to check whether their scooter is suitable for travel.

If the scooter is not suitable, TGA can provide advice on which products from its range can be safely used on the network.

To celebrate the new partnership and to encourage more people onto the trains, Northern passengers with new mobility scooter permits will qualify for a 10% discount on train friendly TGA products.

These products are the TGA Maximo, Minimo, Minimo Plus, Minimo Autofold, Zest and Zest Plus mobility scooters; Strongback wheelchair; TGA Wheelchair Powerpack; Whill C2 and Whill F powerchair.

This new partnership means a shared message will get to more people as Maxine Myers, accessibility improvement manager at Northern, explains: “Due to our historic “no scooters on trains policy”, we knew Northern would benefit from extra help to get our new accessible message out to the community. We were fortunate to be approached by TGA who have some great innovative scooter models and two in particular, the folding Minimo and Maximo, perfectly fulfilled the criteria of our scooter scheme and provide excellent lightweight vehicles for their users.”

Daniel Stone, TGA Managing Director, concludes: “We are delighted to be partnering with Northern who are providing greater accessibility on the rail network and opening up travel to areas in the North of England that may not have previously been possible. Inclusive stations and routes enable mobility scooter and wheelchair users access to the rail network with confidence and we are proud to offer our support to the scheme.”