The ‘Travel with Confidence’ project supported by Hampshire County Council joined members of local charity Winchester Go LD at the Platform 1 café at Shawford station on Tuesday 25 April, at an evening celebrating the success of the project.

The project started in December 2022 and was run in conjunction with Hampshire Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and supported by South Western Railway (SWR). During the four-month project, members of Winchester Go LD shared skills and experiences to mentor other groups of adults with learning disabilities across the county on how to travel comfortably by train.

The project helps members to develop their own skills, and also of demonstrating to them that they are the experts in understanding some of the challenges faced by people with learning disabilities.

Winchester Go LD took participants on station visits and ‘Try the Train’ journeys, and put together a series of videos which break down each step of a journey into easy sections, such as ‘arriving at the station’ and ‘buying a ticket’.

Phil Dominey, SWR’s Senior Regional Development Manager and Mark Miller, Director of the Hampshire Community Rail Partnership, presented members of Winchester Go LD with certificates to mark their achievement in training more than one hundred adults with learning disabilities to travel confidently by rail.

Betty Chadwick, Winchester Go LD’s CEO said: “I am immensely proud of our team of staff, members and volunteers who’ve worked so hard in delivering such a brilliantly successful project.

“It’s wonderful to see our Winchester Go LD members thrive through developing more independent life skills and we hope that they can inspire other adults with learning disabilities to enjoy using the train too.”

Mark Miller, Director Hampshire CRP added, “We’re delighted to help celebrate the achievements of Winchester Go LD members. The group recently trained their 100th client, which is a fantastic achievement and their dedication has contributed so much to the success of this phase of ‘Travel with Confidence’.

“We hope that their work and ‘Help is at Hand’ – our booklet of resources – will make it easier for people with non-visible disabilities to enjoy travelling by rail”.

Phil Dominey, SWR’s Senior Regional Development Manager said: “It is very important to SWR that rail travel should be as easy as possible for everyone, and it was an honour to be able to present certificates to Winchester Go LD members and mark their success in helping people with learning disabilities to gain confidence in travelling by train.

“We hope that everyone they have trained will go on to use their new found confidence and start to use the railways to explore their surroundings.”