A Grand Day Out

Tourism for All’s President Tim Gardiner went on a family day out recently, and was impressed by GWR’s customer assistance.

"To celebrate a family day out we arranged to take Richard, our son who is a wheelchair user, by train from our local station, Radley, to Reading via Oxford. We were meeting up with our other son, James, and his family for lunch.

The booking was arranged through GWR Assistance and involved four different services for the journey, requiring wheelchair access to board and leave trains. Although complicated, the booking was made easy and confirmed in a very helpful email. 

On the day of departure, I received a message from GWR customer assistance stating ‘don’t worry I will not be at the platform in Radley but will be on the train when it arrives’. We were duly met when the train arrived and a ramp was set up for Richard to board the train.

At Oxford we were accompanied to transfer platforms by lifts and shown where to wait for the departure to board the train for Reading where we were helped to leave the train using a ramp. The staff were helpful, well trained and very friendly. They phoned through to Reading station to let them know which carriage we were in.

The return journey was equally easy and we were accompanied by a member of the GWR team who helped with ramps on and off trains all the way to our final destination.

The experience with GWR was excellent and made the day even more memorable. The provision of superb customer service and the understanding of the needs of disabled people by GWR staff was first class."