Stations Made Easy gives you the power to plan your journeys

Planning journeys around the rail network just got a whole lot easier. By using the new ‘Stations Made Easy’ interactive web guide on www.nationalrail.co.uk people can to explore the accessibility of any British rail station from the comfort of their own home.

The new system, the first of its kind for a national rail network anywhere in the world, has been designed so that rail users can see the facilities at stations before they travel.

Every rail station in Britain was photographed to give passengers a step by step guide of how to get around when they travel by train. The photographs allow people to pick the route around a station that best-suits their needs.

There are interactive maps of every station in the country, pointing out where passengers can find all the facilities, such as ticket machines, lavatories, taxi points, shops and bars. The DisabledRailcard channel on Youtube has a short film which tells the story of Stations Made Easy and gives a step-by-step guide to using it.

As part of the project:

• 700,000 photos were taken of over 2,500 stations in Great Britain
• An average of seven stations were photographed each day for a year
• Thousands of routes were plotted through individual stations - there are over 44,000 routes identified within London Bridge station alone.

A total of £1.2m has been invested in the new guide, which has been paid for by train companies, Network Rail, the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland.

“ In the same way that people use sat navs or Google Street View, we hope that this new application will be used as a guide to get them around train stations," said Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of ATOC. 

Transport Minister Chris Mole said: "It is vital that we improve access to our railways for passengers with limited mobility, as well as those with heavy bags or small children. That's why we have contributed £0.5m towards developing this project."

Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s Director of Operations and Customer Service, added: “This is a great initiative that will make life so much easier for many thousands of passengers and we are happy to support this ongoing venture.”

Anthony Smith, Chief Executive, Passenger Focus, said: “We welcome this service which is a real boon for all passengers but especially disabled passengers or those using unfamiliar stations for the first time. It is also pleasing to see Britain’s railways leading the way in this type of visual station information”.