What is available and how to get it?
Southeastern is part of Passenger Assist – a national system that all train companies support, which allows us to make arrangements to assist our passengers with disabilities or restricted mobility. This is both for journeys on our network and where you’re connecting with other operators.
We’re committed to this system and we have a dedicated team who will help you book assistance.
For immediate travel
We understand that planning in advance isn’t always possible – you can turn up at any station that is accessible to you and request assistance onto a train from a member of our staff. If the station doesn’t have staff you can get in contact with us by calling Passenger Assist or using the help points located at all of our stations.
In Kent and East Sussex the train services have conductors and all of our highspeed services have On Board Managers.
We’ll do everything we can to make sure that you’re assisted as your needs require. If a train service isn’t accessible to you, we’ll provide alternative accessible transport at no extra cost.
It may take longer to make arrangements if you haven’t booked in advance.
When travel is arranged in advance
For journeys planned in advance, you can book assistance through Southeastern (as well as any other train company) for journeys that are either direct or involve connections and other train companies on the National Rail network.
You can request Passenger Assist at any point during your journey. To make sure we have staff available to help you, we recommend you book at least 2 hours in advance of travelling.
You can contact us to request Passenger Assist at any time of the day. If your journey involves another train company we may need to confirm part of your journey with them. This might depend on their contact centre opening hours. If this is the case, we will discuss options with you.
Our Passenger Assist team is available 24 hours a day, and every day except Christmas Day on 0800 783 4524 (or for our text relay service, prefix these numbers with 18001). They can also be contacted by filling out a form on our website. Once you have made a booking you will be given a confirmation number, a copy of the booking can also be sent by email.
Not all Southeastern stations are accessible or staffed. Some of our trains are also Driver Only Operated (DOO), which means that there is no conductor on board.
When booking assistance to or from these stations, especially on DOO trains, we will do everything we can to ensure you get the help and assistance you need. We are introducing flexible staff on our network who will be able to assist people at stations or on or off trains when there are no other staff available.
If a station isn’t accessible we can provide, at no extra cost, alternative accessible transport, such as a taxi, to take you to the most convenient accessible station.
Ways to book assistance for your journey:
(Available 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day)
The levels of assistance we're able to provide
There are a number of ways in which we can help you when you're travelling with us:
- Help with planning your journey, including details of the accessibility of all stations across the National Rail network.
- Advice about the facilities you’ll find on the different types of train that Southeastern or other train companies operate.
- Providing information about timetables including during times of engineering works when there are changes to the normal service, and travel may involve buses.
- Advice on other support we can give you and how they work, like Sunflower Lanyards, Just A Minute (JAM) cards, and Priority seating cards.
- Providing advice on how to use a mobility scooter or a wheelchair on our network, including details of how to obtain a copy of our wheelchair and scooter guide document.
- Assistance with getting on and off the train – for example if you need guiding due to a visual impairment, or if you’re a wheelchair user and need a ramp.
- Help with luggage, when booked in advance.
- Getting through the station, to your platform, boarding the train, making connecting services and onward transport within the station area.
- The wheelchair spaces on our trains cannot be reserved. However, if you’re travelling with a long distance operator it’s advisable to ask about reserving a space as they are often very busy and allow wheelchair spaces to be booked.
- Buying tickets: these can be purchased when booking assistance – however this needs to be at least 72 hours in advance if you wish for them to be posted to you. Collection from a ticket vending machine is another option but you will need to wait for two hours after your booking before they become available.
- How to make a complaint or feedback about great service you have received.
We’ve made sure that our contact centre staff are trained to help all of our customers and provide the best possible assistance, including customers with both visible and non-visible disabilities.
We’ll do all that we can to assist you making your journey, but we’re not able to accompany you throughout your journey. We’re unable to provide personal care such as help with eating, taking medication or using the toilet. If you need this support when travelling, you should travel with a companion.
Our Priority Seating Cards and Priority Seat Badges are for anyone who needs to sit down while travelling by train. You may need a priority seat if you’re disabled, over 65, pregnant or your child is under three years old. Priority seats are usually near the doors and are marked with a sign showing a ‘P’ inside a blue triangle.