After train operator Northern was criticised by the Office of Rail and Road for its poor performance in providing passenger assistance to disabled passengers, the regulator has accepted its action plan that details how it intends to improve its service.

The plan details key areas that Northern will improve during the next twelve months, including ensuring that:

• Its policy and processes for passenger assistance are consistent across its network.
• Staff have the right training so they can deliver the service and ability to respond to problems when services are disrupted.
• Technologies used to support passenger assistance are used correctly and consistently in delivering the service.
• Customers and staff have easier access to the information they need in connection with providing assistance to disabled passengers.

During the next three months, Northern will:

• Review the staffing model for providing assistance at large stations including Leeds.
• Provide additional staff training to ensure there is communication between boarding and alighting stations.
• Introduce a dedicated team that can remotely support passengers who need assistance, using tools such as WhatsApp;.
• Introduce a trial of a new process that allows passengers to alert conductors to their assistance needs when they have not pre-booked and are travelling from unstaffed stations.

Last September, the Office of Rail and Road requested Northern to produce an action plan.

In October, a senior roundtable with representatives from the Rail North Partnership, the Department for Transport, Transport for the North, and the Northern User Accessibility Group took part in a constructive engagement with Northern to provide input to its improvement plan.

Starting this month, Northern will provide regular reports to the Regulator on how its improvement plan is progressing, following which they will carry out a full progress review at the end of January 2025 and again at the end of April.

Last February, Northern took a significant step towards enhancing accessibility when it appointed an Accessibility Champion as Chair of its Independent User Group.

“After recent constructive discussions with Northern, we welcome its plan which recognises where it can improve upon its assistance reliability. “The onus is now on the operator to fulfil what it has set out to achieve. We will monitor its progress over the coming months.”

Stephanie Tobyn, Office of Rail and Road director of strategy, policy and reform