Assisted travel with LNER - Fail

[Failed Unit]

Mrs Unit and myself are currently heading to Edinburgh. Mrs Unit is in a wheelchair (but can get out and do limited walking). We booked assisted travel and specified all this with LNER. To be fair at Kings Cross station all was brilliant, met at the station taken to the train before general boarding.

However what I didn’t know that if you book assisted travel, you don’t actually get the wheelchair space reserved. The crew said it was OK to sit in seats M17 and M18. I noticed about 10 minutes before departure the reservation changed to “Kings Cross - York”. I wasn’t sure if this was something the crew had done, or if LNERs book before departure had allocated someone else. Along comes a 2nd Wheelchair. I suspect that is why the crew said that it was OK to sit in seats M17 & M18 because they thought we were the other wheelchair. 5 minutes before departure on a London - Edinburgh service on the Thursday before Easter you would expect it was full. Any spare seats were pretty much all taken so we are not travelling north in different coaches.

Apparently this is a known problem with booking assisted travel (according to LNER) so next time we should phone for assisted travel.

Very 20th Century. Hopefully they have fixed it for our journey South on Sunday. Not sure if the companion seats can be reserved by ordinary passengers, but I certainly couldn‘t do it or book the wheelchair space myself back in February when I made the booking, hence why I used the assisted travel form.

 

[Blindtraveler]

My best piece of advice not necessarily for Sunday but certainly for future is to use the passenger assist smartphone app, this allows you to book companion seats, wheelchair spaces etc and have them confirmed to you when the relevant TOC confirms the assistant. My other piece of advice is be careful as this app is pretty poor and really not nice to use but it's certainly works better than the various forms on most of the TOC websites

 

[Failed Unit]

thank you. I got Sunday sorted via the web chat. The companion seats will still available so all good. I will download the app.

 

[Kath123]

Hi sorry to hear your experience.

I’m visually impaired (not a wheelchair user) and I always telephone to book my assistance. I usually travel with GWR or SWR so don’t know if this is an option with LNER or something you would want to consider doing? I like talking to a human to book and it’s much easier for me to book this way. After the telephone call they send a confirmation e-Mail with all the details on. The only downside to this for me is that Ive become aware in the past 8 months or so that sometimes when I telephone to book assistance the call centre I’ve had to call (using a freephone number) is based in Sheffield and I’m in Somerset so just be aware the person you speak to may or may not be local to you/have much knowledge about the stations you are travelling to/from.

I did try the App once and using Accessibility settings on my phone I did manage to make a booking but it took me a long time and after submitting the request either the App or a person deleted important notes I had typed on the request so I won’t use it again.

I’m just a member of the public on here not an expert and also don’t have the lived experience of being in a similar situation to you and your wife so I don’t really feel qualified to comment on the rest of what you’ve explained but I really hope you and Mrs Unit have a smoother journey on Sunday.

EDIT: Sorry I’ve just noted from your original post you have been advised you can telephone to book. Apologies I missed that bit.

 

[Failed Unit]

The back in terms of the assist wasn’t much better. Couldn’t find anyone at the starting station (Falkirk Grahamston), so we just positioned the wheelchair on the stop block for coach M. The guard opened the door surprised the there was a member of staff doing platform duties but no ramp. The message hadn’t got to Scotrail.

Fortunately Mrs Unit can walk a bit and the step wasn’t too back so she got out the chair and got on the train.

At Kings Cross everything ran like clockwork, however again at Welwyn Garden City no staff were around. Lots of great people helped us off the train. Again not sure why the memo didn’t get through to GTR.

Still appears we have a lot to learn, GTR tend to be good to be fair, just not sure when the staffing hours of Welwyn Garen City are.

 

[Blindtraveler]

There is a further known issue of assists bookings made by lnr that involve other operators not getting through. This is not entirely cured by using the passenger assist app and sometimes if I want to guarantee my messages received by all operators involved, I will make multiple bookings which sometimes results in me getting moaned at by stations who have two bookings for the same job but way I see it is I'd rather have a safety net