Support whilst you're travelling

Aira provides visually impaired customers with on-demand visual information to support independent travel.

Customers connect with an Aira-trained agent via the app on their phone. The agent uses the phone’s camera to interpret the station environment. They can provide assistance such as reading information boards, navigation within the station, or guiding to find staff.

It is free to use at GTR-managed stations with no time limit (data charges may apply if you don’t have a data plan).

Convo is an app designed to remove barriers for people who are deaf or have hearing loss when communicating with others.

It connects users with trained interpreters who provide British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation via a smartphone when interacting with our colleagues.

It can be used when contacting our customer service call centre or to speak to our station or on-board colleagues for example when booking assistance, relaying station or on-board announcements or for general information during the journey.

It can be used at any of our managed stations (availability may be limited at some locations due to insufficient 4/5G or Wi-Fi coverage).

We support the Assisted Dogs Travel scheme, supported by Assistance Dogs UK. The scheme helps assistance dogs and their owners to travel comfortably and safely on our trains by giving a ‘protected space’ for the dog, including a reusable ‘Assistance dog under seat’ card to show while you're travelling.

We recognise the Sunflower Lanyard and other similar schemes which are widely used to highlight your request for support. It is a simple tool for you to voluntarily share that you have a disability or condition that may not be immediately apparent.

If it could help you, our station staff can use a pictorial communication guide. The guide has pictures of several different key aspects of travel that passengers might ask about.

If it could help you, our station staff can use a pictorial communication guide. The guide has pictures of several different key aspects of travel that passengers might ask about.

The rail industry’s 'autism friendly guide to travelling by train' has been put together with the help of the National Autistic Society and an industry accessibility working group.

The guide includes helpful hints and tips, images, sounds and links to more information.

Colleagues from our Disability Employment Network have put together this 'tunnel sensory guide' for passengers who find tunnel environments uncomfortable.

The guide lists railway tunnels on our routes that are over 10 seconds long.