{"id":319872,"date":"2025-11-20T20:49:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=185575"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:49:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:49:53","slug":"deaf-passengers-help-thameslink-and-great-northern-overcome-barriers-to-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=319872","title":{"rendered":"Deaf passengers help Thameslink and Great Northern overcome barriers to travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Great Northern and Thameslink trains, took deaf passengers from Cambridge on a return trip to Stevenage to gain feedback on what needs to be done to make independent travel easier.<\/p>\n

Accessibility Improvement Manager Vincent Duffy joined five members of the Cambridge Deaf Association and their interpreters, its CEO Andrew Palmer, and Damian Brewer, Training and Consultancy Manager at the British Deaf Association.<\/p>\n

Vincent said: \u201cAt Great Northern and Thameslink, we want everyone to have the confidence to travel with us which means doing everything we can to remove the barriers that exist for disabled people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned a huge amount from the members of the Cambridge Deaf Association; it was a real eye-opener. For example, people who use British Sign Language (BSL) may not readily understand the message screens that describe trains \u2018calling at\u2019 or \u2018terminating at\u2019 stations because these aren\u2019t phrases used in BSL. \u2018Stopping at\u2019 or \u2018finishing at\u2019 would be easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Stevenage ticket office, the group tried out the use of \u2018Convo\u2019, which is an app GTR pays for across its entire network. Convo allows passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing to dial up a trained agent on their smartphone who then uses British Sign Language to interpret what staff are saying.<\/p>\n

GTR has also installed interactive smart screens at Brighton, Gatwick Airport, East Croydon, Finsbury Park, Enfield Chase, Blackfriars, City Thameslink and Stevenage stations, that feature a British Sign Language departure board \u2013 so that passengers with hearing loss can understand station announcements and navigate stations with confidence. Similar screens can also be found at London Bridge, King\u2019s Cross and St Pancras.<\/p>\n

Andrew Palmer of the Cambridge Deaf Association said: \u201cWe really welcome Govia Thameslink Railway\u2019s efforts to make the railway more accessible for deaf people. The group from Cambridge who took part had a fascinating and valuable day sharing their experiences and ideas for improving accessibility for deaf travellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey felt their views were taken onboard, and we look forward to seeing how Govia Thameslink builds on the great work already being done to make train travel more inclusive for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damian Brewer of the British Deaf Association commented:\u201cWe\u2019re pleased to work alongside Govia Thameslink Railway and see them taking meaningful steps to improve access for deaf signers, especially through the use of British Sign Language.<\/p>\n

\u201cInclusive communication is vital, and innovations like BSL smart screens and Convo show what\u2019s possible when opinions from deaf signers are truly listened to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also grateful to the Cambridge Deaf Association (one of our British Sign Language Alliance partners) for their support in engaging with local deaf people, ensuring that community voices were central to this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further feedback sessions are going to be run with deaf passengers at Brighton and London Blackfriars.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Govia Thameslink Railway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Great Northern and Thameslink trains, took deaf passengers from Cambridge on a return trip to Stevenage to gain feedback on what needs to be done to make independent travel easier. Accessibility Improvement Manager Vincent Duffy joined five members of the Cambridge Deaf Association and their interpreters, its CEO Andrew [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,47,16092,16016,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility","category-rail-news","category-stations","category-train-operating-companies","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319896,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319872\/revisions\/319896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}