£1m improvements to Southern stations nearly complete

Southern is close to completing its £1m programme of accessibility improvements to 40 of its stations. The programme helps to make it easier for all passengers to use these stations on the Southern network. The funding for the upgrades came jointly from Southern and the Department for Transport’s Small Schemes Fund - part of the Access for All programme. The investment is being made on access improvements at over 20 stations, and the work completed so far includes: Accessible toilet – Ham Street; Adjustable height chip and pin arms – Hove; Automatic doors – Bognor Regis, Cheam and Gatwick; Anti-slip flooring – Brighton; Benches – at 18 stations; Changing Places toilet – Brighton cycle hub; Dual height ticket office counters – Cheam, Chichester, Coulsdon South and Emsworth; Drop kerb moved – Bexhill; Handrails – Barnham, East Croydon, Southwick and Sutton; Hearing loops attached to announcements in ticket offices and waiting shelters – Hassocks; Platform widening – Warblington; Stair nosing refreshment – Tulse Hill; Step free access to platform – Wivelsfield; Wheelchairs to help passengers to trains – Brighton and East Croydon. On-going aspects of the programme include platform widening at Fishbourne, as well as the installation of Information Pods at East Croydon. Southern is adding hearing loops around waiting shelters at Angmering, Burgess Hill, Hampden Park, Portslade and Worthing stations, meaning that passengers who use hearing aids are able to sit in comfort and listen to announcements, without restrictions imposed by previous systems. Andy Harrowell, Southern’s Accessibility Manager said: “It is great to be well over half way through this programme. Every year we have been able to invest more money in access improvements across our network and I’m pleased we are well on our way to finishing the £1 million spend. Many hearing loops only provide a one metre radius, but the new ones at Hassocks cover the whole of the ticket office and two waiting shelters, meaning that passengers with hearing aids can hear announcements anywhere within these areas. These improvements help all of our passengers travel with us by removing barriers to access and enhancing our accessibility.” Suggestions for improvements were put forward by passengers and staff so that Southern could invest in areas where they were most needed and valued by our passengers. All the works are due to be completed by the end of July this year. Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live. Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on. 1) Make our website your homepage 2) Like our Facebook page 3) Follow us on Twitter 4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here. And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out! Always the first with your local news. Be part of it.