NEW Research: Our 2025 Family Friendly Trains Scorecard is here!

We reached out to 23 #train operating companies with the help of the Rail Delivery Group to undertake an assessment of how #familyfriendly they are.

@merseytravel.bsky.social and @lner.co.uk are the clear winners!

At Chepstow station, like many others, I imagine you can only access one platform without climbing steps. Recently a woman arrived from Cardiff with a baby in a pushchair and was unable to get the train back because of the footbridge.

We've secured the best place for a baby on the train, in the wheelchair space by the toilet getting annoyed about the lack of provision for children in public space

This is so useful. The amount of times we've come to a railway station with a pushchair and not had a way to get over to the platform (in rural Wales) is insane.

More frequent and reliable trains would be a huge help. As would consistent level boarding, decent bike/pushchair/luggage space and wheelchair spaces.

Might as well ask for the moon on a stick.

We want all trains to have family friendly spaces; we don't mind who runs them!

Southeastern’s Class 707 ‘City Beam’ trains will be fitted with accessible toilets as part of a multi-million-pound investment. The larger toilets will have wide doors for wheelchair users and parents with pushchairs, improving accessibility.
newsroom.southeasternrailway.co.uk/news/southea...

I also lived in zone 3 and regularly travelled to zone 6. We could have got the train but when we had young kids, we drove instead. Why? Safer, more reliable and try dealing with a pushchair on a train. Absolute mare.

One of my favourite campaigns is here!

A Tweet led to a flurry of other people shouting out #kindness they’d experienced on trains - and then to an article on The Poke highlighting them all!

The original Tweet read

“To the Southern Rail UK driver who pulled into West Norwood, saw me standing on the […]

[Original post on kind.social]

No seat for under 5s drives me mad. Obviously, one cannot share a seat with a 4yo and a 2yo. There is nowhere for a pushchair. A 4yo and 2yo can't stand for hours. I would love to sit a rail exec down and ask him* to explain how this family is meant to travel.

* I feel confident calling this one

We are a group of parents campaigning for better facilities for children and families on the UK rail network.

Our main ask is for dedicated space on trains for unfolded pushchairs, with seating for parents or carers nearby.

I've had to develop systems in the past for what happens if trains are cancelled. Spreadsheets for alternative routes etc. With a pram, most of those routes are not possible now. So different systems are now in place.

Even just with a buggy. There are some — especially bits of the thameslink in London, and GWR trains all over — which have a huge climb up/down from to the carriage, physically impossible for one person plus pram to manage.

We're trying to make it easier!

Love this from Hammersmith when I was heading east last weekend to see friends.

Did you know that if you wave at a train driver, if we see you, it restores our souls & a bit of our HP? We will always try to wave back if it’s safe to do so - just remember to stay clear of the platform edge!

#London

Taking a pair of lively young grandkids on to a train with their scooters and a pushchair requires nerves of steel and logistical planning of a relocating army.

My latest Granda Kev Daily Mirror column.

www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/fa...

on intra-city trains (commuter rail) there is one specialized car - here is Swiss-made FLIRT car for prams, wheelchairs and bikes (other cars have at least small section for them too).

Borrowed from these HSL info pages
fennica.pohjoiseen.fi/en/2019/12/0...
fennica.pohjoiseen.fi/en/2019/12/0...

Where are you supposed to put prams on trains? I don’t want to take a wheelchair spot, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere else to put them?