Inclusive Transport

Championing equal access on public transport.  

Help make a world of difference. it's everyone's journey.

If everyone using public transport takes small steps to be mindful of their fellow passengers, we can all make transport more inclusive.

Working in conjunction with the DFT we are asking our customers to have patience with other passengers, understand that other passengers may have hidden disabilities and to be considerate when travelling on our buses. A little help and thought can make the world of difference to some people and give them the confidence to use public transport

It's everyone's journey, brings together those who want to improve public transport for disabled people and deliver real change. It has been developed by the Department for Transport in partnership with industry, disability groups and disabled people.

Disabled people travel up to a third less than non-disabled people. This has an impact on access to employment, healthcare, education and social activities. Barriers to public transport are not limited to reliability and the physical infrastructure but also include the attitudes and behaviours of staff and fellow passengers.

Please see more on the Everyone's Journey website⇒ https://everyonesjourney.campaign.gov.uk

First Bus has been working to improve its services to be even more accessible for disabled people. Working together with community members, stakeholders and representative groups we are continuing to make transport more accessible.

We launched a new fleet of buses to accommodate multiple wheelchair users on local Bristol services. Following discussions with members of the disabled community and the Bristol Older People’s Forum the decision was made to introduce a new, more accessible service with new vehicles.   

The improvements to buggy space and the introduction of an additional wheelchair backrest seat provides ample safe space for a second wheelchair on each bus.

In Leeds, we worked to improve accessibility by liaising with several disability groups including Guide Dogs, RNIB, National Federation of the Blind and Leeds City Council Access and Use Ability Group. Feedback from stakeholders focused on two key aspects of the bus journey. The first was how to provide onboard stop information for passengers with a visual impairment, part of the rollout of the Connecting Leeds new bus package, and the second looked at accessibility for  wheelchair users in the priority space.    

Working with Hanover, we operated special VIP trips with disability group representatives to test, adapt and improve a new Audio Visual Next Stop system that has now been rolled out on nearly 200 new buses.  

Following the feedback from wheelchair users, First worked with Wrightbus and redesigned the shape of a hand-pole to widen access to the priority space and changed the stop bell placement to make journeys more comfortable. This design change has already been applied to 75 new vehicles in the Leeds fleet and is now the standard for future orders of the Streetdeck MH3 model from Wrightbus.

To help our customers travel with confidence we have developed new functionality in our First Bus App. And you can now track your bus live on a map so you know exactly where it is and when it will get to your stop. What’s more, each bus now displays in real time if the wheelchair space is free and how many empty seats there are, to help you plan your journey.

https://everyonesjourney.campaign.gov.uk ⇒