“It was so easy, I thought it couldn’t be real.”
For Becky, planning her journey in advance is an important part of travelling with confidence. While studying at university, train travel was not optional. It was how she got to lectures, how she returned home during the holidays, and how she stayed connected with family and friends. But needing assistance meant that every journey began long before she reached the platform.
Discovering the Passenger Assistance app made that planning much simpler, turning what could sometimes be a time-consuming process into something she could do in just a few minutes.
“I have always requested assistance on trains and I usually had to do it over the phone. So I usually had to call and wait for them to pick up and do all of that.”
“Sometimes you might be using one train operator going somewhere and then the journey back is with another train operator. And it’s like you have to call two different train operators and repeat the same stuff again and it’s all too much.”
Travelling between university and home already came with deadlines, packing, exam stress and long days. Adding administrative hurdles before even getting on the train only amplified the pressure.
And there was always a quiet uncertainty.
Particularly on evening arrivals, she never knew for certain whether someone would be there.
“Particularly if my train was arriving at night… sometimes there would just be no one on the platform. And nobody would show up.”
Just over a year ago, Becky decided to try the Passenger Assistance app instead of booking by phone. She admits she was sceptical.
“I thought, let me try the app. And I was really nervous at first that it wouldn’t work, but then I was like, let me just sort of put my faith in it and see what happens.”
What surprised her most was how straightforward it felt.
“It was extremely easy. There was nothing on the app that I wasn’t familiar with. It wasn’t like particularly technological.
“Using the app is literally like you press a few buttons and it’s done. That’s why I was worried that they weren’t actually going to show up because I was like, is this actually like a real thing?”
Instead of calling at least 24 hours in advance and waiting on hold, she could request assistance in minutes up to two hours before her journey.
“With the app, you can just do everything in one go. You don’t have to speak to anyone if you don’t want to. And it takes like five minutes.”
That shift from lengthy phone calls to just a few taps changed how travel felt. It removed one layer of stress before the journey had even begun.
And when she arrived at the station, staff were there.
“The people showed up with the ramp to get me on. They showed up with the ramp to get me off.”
That reliability matters most when the journey itself matters. Travelling to university. Travelling home. Travelling for work.
“When I used to book assistance over the phone, there’s definitely been times when I booked assistance and nobody came… But whenever I use the app, people do show up and get me on the train.”
Now living in central London, Becky does not need assistance for every local journey. But when she travels further across the UK for work, events or to see family booking through the app is the first step.
Looking through the app, Becky surprised even herself with how often she had used the app: “I knew I’d taken quite a few journeys using Passenger Assistance but I didn’t realise how many, but yeah, I’ve taken quite a few.”
The ease still stands out.
“It’s quick, it’s clear, it’s really easy to use. I just don’t feel like calling someone and talking to them on the phone.”
Instead of navigating different systems and repeating information, everything is in one place.
She has even recommended it to colleagues who feel anxious about train travel who fed back similar feelings. She said: “I did recommend it actually to one of my co workers who was coming from Manchester to London and he did use it and he said it was really good. Normally he hates travelling but he said this made it so much easier for him.”
For disabled students travelling to lectures, graduates commuting to work or anyone heading home after a long term away, transport is more than logistics. It is access to education, to employment, to independence.
For Becky, Passenger Assistance does not remove every barrier. But it removes the uncertainty around booking and showing up.
“Every time I’ve used it I haven’t had any issues.”
What once felt like an administrative hurdle now takes minutes.
“It was so easy, I thought it couldn’t be real.”
Now, it simply feels like it should have always been that way.