West Midlands Railway Adds Accessible Waiting Spaces At 35 Stations

West Midlands Railway has introduced accessible waiting spaces at more than 35 stations to make it easier for wheelchair users to receive passenger assistance.

The marked areas give passengers a clear place to wait and provide station staff with a dedicated meeting point when support has been requested.

The scheme has been developed with Cameron Wood, a local disability activist who lives with Cerebral Palsy and Hydrocephalus. It is intended to improve the experience of disabled passengers using the rail network.

The latest accessible waiting space has been installed at Tile Hill station in Coventry. Each space is marked with a blue rectangle, wheelchair logo and signage above the area so passengers and staff can identify it easily.

West Midlands Railway said the spaces are now in place across a range of stations in the region, including Droitwich Spa, Worcester Foregate Street and Worcester Shrub Hill in Worcestershire, Coventry Arena, Kenilworth and Tile Hill in Coventry and Warwickshire, and Telford Central in Shropshire.

They have also been installed at stations across Birmingham city centre and at multiple locations on the Cross City Line.

The wider passenger assistance scheme is designed to help people who need support boarding or leaving trains. Assistance can be booked online or through the Passenger Assistance App up to two hours before travel.

In 2025, West Midlands Railway provided passenger assistance to more than 56,000 customers.

The waiting spaces form part of a wider package of accessibility improvements across WMR stations. Other measures include tactile maps for visually impaired passengers, British Sign Language options on digital customer information screens, and sensory packs for neurodiverse customers.

Cameron Wood joined WMR director of customer experience Sophie Morris at Tile Hill station to mark the progress of the scheme.

Sophie Morris, director of customer experience at WMR, said:

“We are dedicated to making the railway accessible for everyone. Working with Cameron, we identified a need for these spaces and chose which stations to install them in by looking at multiple factors such as footfall and the volume of passenger assistance bookings each year. We hope they will help disabled passengers feel more confident using the rail network, while allowing our staff to provide assistance quickly.”

Cameron Wood, disability activist, said:

“As a wheelchair user, rail travel has rarely been easy, however this changed in 2023 when I suggested that West Midlands Railway trial dedicated waiting spaces on station platforms across its network. The idea came from my experiences at Witton station on match days after attending games at Villa Park, and those experiences have helped drive the accessibility improvements now being introduced. I'm especially proud to see waiting spaces at Tile Hill station, as they will help students from Hereward College to travel more independently with friends and family.”

Image: West Midlands Railway