East Midlands Railway have increased the number of stations where customers can take a virtual tour to make them more familiar with the layout of the stations before they travel.

The tours will be of particular benefit to disabled and anxious travellers and have been created with advice from the East Midlands Railway’s Accessibility Panel.

When taking a virtual tour, customers can identify the location of public areas, toilets, platforms, car parks, and drop-off points.

The latest stations to get the virtual tours are Corby, Wellingborough, Long Eaton, Loughborough, Chesterfield, Market Harborough, and East Midlands Parkway.

A virtual tour of Alfreton station is currently in development. These add to the tours that are already available for Derby, Sheffield, Nottingham, Lincoln, and Kettering stations.

How are the virtual tours created?

Detailed 360-degree photography was used as the basis for the tours, from which the stations were mapped in meticulous detail to create a tour which allows customers to virtually find their way through all of the station’s public spaces.

Included in the tours are information and directions about all public areas of the stations, including toilets, customer service desks, platforms, as well as other areas such as car parks and drop-off locations.

All tours can be accessed online, and users can choose to either find their way around the station manually or be guided using an “Autopilot” feature.

“Autopilot” allows users to select where they want to go on a station, and the tour will automatically guide them to it. If a user wants a more hands-on approach, they can choose to find their way around manually by clicking a series of options.

East Midlands Railway’s Accessibility Panel consists of a group of disabled customers who regularly engage with the train company to provide feedback on accessibility issues, and they were closely involved throughout the development of the project.

Sign language and subtitles are available

One particularly useful feature is the option to choose the tour in either English or British Sign Language (BSL), as well as adding subtitles to features during navigation around the station.

The opening image takes the user to the front entrance of the stations, then comes up with various destinations where the user might want to find.

All of the virtual tours are available online and can be accessed by clicking here.

Virtual maps of EMR stations are going to make such a difference to passengers – especially disabled passengers. Having the ability to understand the layout of the station ahead of time will enable them to make better decisions about their time there with less anxiety and more confidence.

Georgie Hill-Jones, one of the Accessibility Panel members

We know many customers can often feel anxious about taking a trip, especially if they have extra accessibility needs or haven’t travelled in a while. 

We hope these virtual tours provide a useful tool for customers when they are planning their journey.

Emma Davis, Head of Customer Experience at East Midlands Railway