After successful trials last year on trains travelling between York, Leeds, and Manchester, Northern is planning to introduce British Sign Language (BSL) announcements on all of its services.

The announcements will help customers with hearing impairments listen to important train service information, and follows the introduction of a similar service by other train operators including TransPennine Express, Chiltern Railways, and London Overground.

Software experts from InfoTec and Signapse developed the technology for a sign language interpreter to appear on the onboard screens to inform customers of the station that they are approaching.

During the trial, Northern received plenty of positive feedback from customers and is now planning to introduce British Sign Language announcements on all of its services next year.

To produce the announcements, interpreters will be filmed whilst signing each station, after which AI editing software will use the video clips to create the video announcements for the trains.

Following the introduction of the British Sign Language announcements, Northern is looking at long-term plans to enhance the announcements to include information about cancellations, delays, and other incidents.

Data recorded in the 2021 census showed that in addition to spoken languages, British Sign Language was the major language used by 22,000 people throughout the UK.

“It’s fantastic to see these sign language announcements have been well received by our customers during the recent trial and we can now press ahead with rolling them out on all of our services.
“We’re constantly working to make our services more accessible and give people with specific needs the confidence to travel by train.”

Matt Rice, chief operating officer