Train operator, Greater Anglia, has launched an online virtual tour of Beaulieu Park rail station to help people plan their journeys and travel with confidence.
The tour has been designed to support journey planning, give passengers a clearer picture of the station before they travel, and reduce anxiety about how they will get around. It is particularly helpful for disabled people, allowing them to check accessible routes through the station in advance.
Using the virtual tour, people can find out how to get to all public areas of the new Essex station, which opened in October 2025, including the toilets, ticket machines, platforms, bus interchange, and taxi rank.
Detailed 360-degree photography lets users travel around the station realistically, and aerial photography and an interactive map show the location of all the facilities in relation to each other.
Key features can be navigated to directly through a drop-down menu system, while the ‘autopilot’ tool gives users the option of selecting their destination and being automatically guided to it.
Greater Anglia already has virtual tours available online for 19 of its busiest stations for Passenger Assistance, as well as for its entire new train fleet, covering all train types.
The tours can be viewed at https://virtualtour.greateranglia.co.uk/beaulieupark/ on any device, and the addition of more stations is planned in the future.
Accessibility and Inclusion Manager Rebecca Richardson, said: “The idea was to create a tool for customers to assist them with their journey planning and reduce the anxiety about whether the station would create any accessibility barriers, so that they can travel with confidence.
“We are committed to making rail more accessible and providing quality information to enable more informed journey planning.”
The technology was provided by The Virtual Tour Experts, and the tour has been designed to be accessible. A spoken scene guide with closed captions plays on the home page at the station entrance, and an accessibility widget allows users to switch to high contrast, large font size or audio transcription. Future developments will look at incorporating British Sign Language videos.
Members of Greater Anglia’s Accessibility Panel, a group of disabled customers who meet regularly with the train operator, offered feedback during the development of the virtual tours and have been supportive of the project.
In addition, Greater Anglia’s new trains are significantly more accessible and easier to use than the trains they replaced, making rail journeys across the region more straightforward for many travellers.
Image credit: Greater Anglia