A leading customer experience award scheme has recognised Northern Trains for the work that it is doing in collaboration with its passengers by using their real-life experiences to come up with practical solutions to make travel more accessible for everybody.

At The Forum Awards held in Nottingham last Tuesday, 25th April, Northern was awarded the Inclusivity title. The Forum Awards are designed to recognise organisations that are at the forefront of raising standards for customer operations. Among the criteria they look at are activities in digital channels, face-to-face, back office operations, and contact centres.

Other companies that Northern was up against in its category were Firstsource, FIS/Worldpay, Legal & General, Ocado, RSA Insurance, the Student Loans Company and Water Plus.

This is just the latest award Northern has received for its work to improve accessibility on its network. Last February, it came away with the Customer Service Excellence award at the Rail Business Awards. That award was for its ‘Accessible Travel Simulation’, a game designed to support people with anxiety and other access needs to have the confidence they need to travel by train.

Continuing its commitment to support people with special needs, earlier this month Northern rolled out eight more Passenger Assist Points that make travel easier for people with accessibility needs and produced some of their more-important customer policy documents in British Sign Language versions.

Northern’s new summer timetable comes into effect on Sunday, 21st May. All customers, especially those who make regular journeys on the same train, are advised to check the new timetables before they travel. More information is available at www.northernrailway.co.uk/timetablechange

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “It’s always nice to be recognised for your work and we accepted this award not only on behalf of Northern – but our customers too.

“This is a joint victory and was only possible thanks to the contribution of so many people – not least of all our Northern Accessibility User Group – whose members regularly give up their time and share their experiences to help improve the travel experience of millions of our customers.”