Accessible Rail Journeys in 2020

The temptation to call this video "The only way is Step Free Essex" was overwhelming, but common sense ultimately prevailed when I remembered that Sudbury is in Suffolk. But i want you to know that I considered it ...

Should have mentioned Dominic's see-through masks are to help people with lip reading (as ordinary masks block view of the mouth)

There were a few jokes cut out of this.... please be grateful they were, because they were awful.

you know its a TRUE secret when you tell GEOFF of all people something cool about a train!

I'm a rail professional myself and I considered myself to by all about accessibility, but I never thought about the shape of words being important. I will take it in account when ordering the next trains.

My wife is blind and commutes by train. Most of the station staff are brilliant. Unfortunately the same cannot generally be said of the travelling public. I implore everyone who travels by train to be more aware of people with ALL disabilities.....

Guys, I'm non-disabled, so really appreciated the education on accessibility you provided. Thanks.

Word recognition is 100% how United Kingdom signage on the roads is designed. It is brilliant.

"Toilet at Marks Tay Yay" Love that

Geoff, as someone who has unexpectedly suffered mobility problems - this was a welcome eye-opener. Glad that you made and posted this - many thanks to Dominic. frank

the motorway electronic signs are Lowercase now as its easier for people to read quickly - again about the shape of the word

I often use Passenger Assistance as someone who is visually impaired. Stations with wayfinding built into the design of surfaces and lighting (SPT use this in Glasgow/Strathclyde), good and informative vs bad or non-existent PA announcements, are the sorts of things that help empower me. Thank you so much for this video, Geoff, you’ve communicated some of the lived challenges and sheer joy of empowerment so well.

I've got a radar key because of my ibs and other personal issues and it helps me out tons! I got asked why I used the disabled loos when I obviously look okey, that very incident I was unwell with ibs cramps and nausea, they obviously didn't believe me, like I had to show them proof I'm poorly, okey then I'll hand you my portable endoscope then 😒

This seems like a much smoother experience than when i've travelled with wheelchair users. Booking assistance is often pointless when railway staff are still surprised when a disabled passenger turns up, and act as if it's some massive effort for them to do anything to help.

This is the only thing that has taken me aback with these trains. The fact that they have inbuilt wheelchair ramps, which is very clever. That’s the only thing I like about these trains really. It is rather clever.

The thing I thought was “neat” was the wheelchair “lock” on the train door to keep it open!

Thank you Geoff for highlighting these issues that we often take for granted. Accessibility to services is a choice made by those who provide them. I'm happy to see these improvements!

It's great to see transit doing more and more to make the world accessible for everyone.

Hi Geoff, I just want to thank you for your decision to start providing captions on your videos. As someone with an auditory processing disorder I find them really helpful!

Most interesting and a very important subject. I was particularly interested in the point that we recognise familiar words by their shape as well as by reading them. This reminded me of something similar in a completely different railway context. When I was a young train spotter, a school friend told me that you can see a train's number by the shapes of its digits before you get close enough to be able to actually read them. It's true, and I still use this to recognise (for example) bus route numbers, when I'm waiting for one, before it's possible to see the digits clearly. And yes, it is more difficult to do this with dot matrix number displays, just as was explained in this video.