Assisted travel

The majority of passengers travel on our network without booking assistance (“turn up and go”)

If you do wish to book assistance our call centre colleagues are happy to help you with planning your journey.

You can contact us at any time of the day for assisted travel guidance or to request an assisted travel booking. To make sure we have staff available to help you, we recommend you book at least two hours in advance of travelling.

If your journey involves another train company, we may need to confirm part of your journey with them. If this is the case, we will discuss options with you.

If you do choose to travel “turn up and go” without booking assistance in advance, please make yourself known to a member of staff or use a Help Point when you arrive at the station.

Accessibility

At Southern, we are committed to making sure everyone can travel with confidence. The industry assisted travel scheme ‘Passenger Assist’, enables disabled and older people who prefer to request their assistance in advance, up to two hours before their journey.

Many of our passengers travel on our network without booking assistance (turn up and go), which is something we’re proud of. No matter how you choose to travel, please make yourself known to a member of staff or use a Help Point when you arrive at the station.

How to book assisted travel with Passenger Assist

There are several ways to book Passenger Assist:

Book via app

You can request assistance via Passenger Assistance by Transreport – a new smartphone app.

Book online:

Fill in our assisted travel booking form online

Call us:

Call us on: 0800 138 1016 (your information may be recorded)
Textphone: 0800 138 1018

Our assisted travel helpline is open 24 hours a day, except on Christmas Day. To make sure we have staff available to help you, we recommend you book at least two hours in advance of travelling. We can tell you about your nearest station with step-free access and give information about ramps and lifts. We can also arrange help both at stations and on trains, as well as provide train times and travel information. If you’d like help with planning your journey and booking a train ticket in advance, please call our assisted travel team at least seven days before you’d like to travel. If your journey involves another train company, we may need to confirm part of your journey with them. If this is the case, we will discuss options with you. Or, should you wish to contact other operators directly, contact details are available on National Rail’s website.

Book assisted travel

You can also request assistance via Passenger Assistance by Transreport – a new smartphone app. Find out more.

What to do when you arrive at the station

To offer you the best assistance possible, we recommend that you arrive at the station 20 minutes before your train is due to depart. When you arrive let a member of staff know, you require assistance, or you’ve booked assisted travel.

We can help you:

buy a ticket and anything else you may want for your journey
show you where to go – you’ll need to get to the platform 5 minutes before your train leaves
get around the station, providing ramps or another kind transport if you can’t use steps
board the train and find a seat
change trains during your journey

We can also carry light luggage and let other stations know you are coming so that you are looked after when you arrive at your destination.

View our resources for further support whilst travelling.

Accessible facilities at the station

Make sure to check our station pages, for information on accessibility at your station.

You can also search for your station on this page, to see if there are any temporary reductions to the accessible facilities.

You can also watch our video to see what’s available at the station.

Rail replacement buses

When we provide rail replacement buses or coaches for planned disruption, we use accessible vehicles. In circumstances when this is not possible, our Assisted Travel and customer facing teams will always identify an alternative journey plan to enable disabled customers to complete their journey.

Further information about rail replacement buses

At least 12 weeks before all major engineering works, we take steps to assess our requirement for accessible vehicles to maximise their availability. Our approach is to ensure that the experience of disabled people when buses are provided, closely resembles that of non- disabled people during all planned engineering works.

If we provide a taxi due to non-availability of a suitable (accessible) vehicle, we will do all we can to ensure the alternative transport waiting time is similar to the passengers’ who can use a non-accessible bus/coach. Our staff are briefed ahead of any planned disruption to support disabled people. For example, they will consider suitable (sheltered) waiting facilities and access to toilets. If any delay is known for alternative transport and that it will be greater than 30 minutes beyond the original expected times, they will inform the customer immediately and maintain regular contact as required.

For further information, please refer to our Accessible Travel Policy.

Our bus supplier complies with relevant regulations including Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) subject to any official derogations. This contract is reviewed on an annual basis to consider any changes to increase the availability of accessible vehicles.

Not all local authorities have mandatory disability equality training in place when they issue taxi or minicab licences. Therefore, we can’t guarantee that all drivers we use received such training.

Our commitment to you

We are committed to working towards providing accessible travel for everyone, and our ongoing programme of access improvements will see more and more stations and trains becoming more accessible.

We know as an industry we can do better to give everyone the confidence to travel. We’re working hard to empower disabled people and others who require assistance by making our services easier to use and have set out our commitments in our Accessible Travel Policy.

For example, the notice you give to pre-book assistance is reduced to two hours before travel, although you’re always welcome to turn up at a station unannounced. All our staff are having improved accessibility training, we’ve enhanced our websites and signs at stations, and we are rolling out mobile assistance teams serving our smaller unstaffed stations.

Learn more about our accessible travel policy.

Planning your journey

What's available at the station

Getting on board

Arriving at your destination

Can I reserve seating on the train?

What rail discounts are available to me as a disabled person?

Will there be accessible toilets available on the train and on the platform?

What support is there for disabled passengers during on-board emergencies?

Our on-board staff are trained to help you if there is an emergency on the train. In most cases it’s usually safer to stay on the train and tell a member of staff that you need assistance. In an emergency, you should contact a member of staff, or press the emergency button to speak with the driver. We’ll advise you what to do and make sure someone comes to your aid.

We will work with the emergency services to get you off the train safely if you’re in any danger. Speak to our assisted travel team if you’d like to know more about our emergency procedures for disabled people:

Telephone: 0800 138 1016
Textphone 0800 138 1018

What support is available if a station is inaccessible?

How do I feedback, including if things go wrong?

If you’ve recently travelled with us using assisted travel and would like to provide feedback on your experience, you can do so through our online contact form.

Customers who have not received the level of assistance they would reasonably expect after they’ve made a booking can contact us via our customer relations team. If a booked assistance fails then customers are asked to contact us as soon as possible, and to include the ticket or proof of purchase and an overview of what went wrong, and we will take appropriate action including arranging to refund the ticket cost.

See our ‘Easy Read Feedback Guide’ here.

Book assisted travel for your journey

If you’d like to book assistance, we can arrange your help, contact you with confirmation and answer any questions you may have.

Book assistance

Stay up-to-date

Subscribe to email updates. Get travel inspiration, journey updates and exclusive offers delivered straight to your inbox.

We will not pass on your personal information to any organisation outside of Southern.

Should we no longer operate the Southern franchise, please be aware that we will pass your details to the Successor franchise or Secretary of State for Transport to allow you to continue receiving service and/or marketing emails if you have consented to them.

Subscription confirmed

Thank you for subscribing to receive relevant updates from Southern.

Subscription Failed

Something went wrong with your submission, please try again later.