Ranking Great Britain’s Most Accessible Train Stations

More and more of us are travelling on Great Britain’s rail network, with figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) revealing that 1,610 million passenger journeys were completed between April 2023 and March 2024. This is up by 16 per cent compared to the previous year’s figures.

While we can use stairlifts and other mobility aids to move freely and comfortably around our homes, this is not always the case when using public transport.

Here at Access BDD, we have looked to highlight this point by ranking Great Britain’s 20 busiest train stations for their accessibility features. This is what we have discovered…

Five Train Stations Achieve Perfect Scores

A trio of railway stations in Great Britain’s capital city – London King’s Cross, Liverpool Street and Waterloo – as well Glasgow Central and Manchester Piccadilly were found to have all of these accessibility features:

1. Accessible parking
2. Accessible telephones & communication aids
3. Accessible ticket machines
4. Accessible toilets which are compliant with the National Key Scheme (NKS)
5. Accessible waiting areas
6. Induction loop availability
7. Lift availability
8. Presence of station staff
9. Step-free access to all platforms
10. Train ramp availability

Reviews published on Tripadvisor provide plenty of further compliments to the travel hubs which are top of our rankings. Here are some highlights:

• At Kings Cross, Seachaplain commented that when “travelling with my disabled son, getting off the train to getting out of the station was easy with very helpful staff”.
• At Liverpool Street, AKG noted that they “travel here at least weekly. Busy, yet functional station. Plenty of signage and help stations if required. So very close to everything. Top transit station”.
• At Waterloo, Hilda W pointed out that “I met staff at the ticket office who went out of their way to help me and take time to explain things to me”.
• At Glasgow Central, Richard M stated that “I travel regularly from this station. Lots of lovely places to eat, facilities spotless, disabled access easy and staff are very helpful”.
• At Manchester Piccadilly, cynthia131046 delivered praise by saying that “the disabled assistance is very good here and the staff got me on and off the train in my mobility scooter”.

How Great Britain’s Other Busiest Train Stations Can Become More Accessible Or Data Availability & Accuracy Improved

It is encouraging that all 20 of the railway hubs we have analysed have at least five of the accessibility features used to make our rankings.

However, the following train stations could make their facilities and overall stops more welcoming to disabled passengers and visitors by either making these improvements or improving data availability and accuracy:

London Paddington scored 9 out of 10 in our rankings, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible telephones & communication aids

London Victoria scored 9 out of 10, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible telephones & communication aids

London Euston scored 9 out of 10, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible parking

London St Pancras International scored 9 out of 10, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible telephones & communication aids

Birmingham New Street scored 9 out of 10, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible ticket machines

Leeds Station scored 9 out of 10, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible telephones & communication aids

Edinburgh Waverley scored 9 out of 10, with the following specific improvement point needed:

• Accessible ticket machines

Stratford International Station scored 8 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible telephones & communication aids

Clapham Junction scored 8 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible telephones & communication aids
• Presence of staff

London Bridge scored 7 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible ticket machines
• Accessible waiting areas

Highbury & Islington scored 7 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible telephones & communication aids
• Accessible toilets which are NKS-compliant

Farringdon scored 6 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible telephones & communication aids
• Accessible toilets which are NKS-compliant
• Accessible waiting areas

Tottenham Court Road (Elizabeth Line) scored 5 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible telephones & communication aids
• Accessible toilets which are NKS-compliant
• Accessible waiting areas
• Train ramp availability

Bond Street (Elizabeth Line) scored 5 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible telephones & communication aids
• Accessible toilets which are NKS-compliant
• Accessible waiting areas
• Train ramp availability

Whitechapel scored 5 out of 10, with the following specific improvement points needed:

• Accessible parking
• Accessible telephones & communication aids
• Accessible ticket machines
• Accessible toilets which are NKS-compliant
• Accessible waiting areas

Bethany Ward at Access BDD, commented: “Complete accessibility to all of Great Britain’s train stations should be a full-time commitment for people running these hubs.

“Millions of people across the nation are disabled or have accessibility issues after all, so features like passenger lifts and step-free access will be vital for them to move around stations without encountering problems.

“It is encouraging that our data analysis has found there are a few fully accessible train stations throughout Great Britian. However, there are many hubs which should be improving their facilities as a matter of urgency.”

Methodology

The data included in this article was identified and ranked by assessing a range of accessibility features at Great Britain’s 20 busiest rail stations, based on the latest Estimates of Station Usage published by the ORR.

Each station was evaluated against these ten core accessibility indicators:

1. Accessible parking
2. Accessible telephones & communication aids
3. Accessible ticket machines
4. Accessible toilets which are NKS-compliant
5. Accessible waiting areas
6. Induction loop availability
7. Lift availability
8. Presence of station staff
9. Step-free access to all platforms
10. Train ramp availability

A feature was allocated a score as follows at the stations analysed:

• 1 – Where the feature is available
• 0 – Where the feature is either unavailable or in cases where information was unclear or unconfirmed (e.g. staff availability or accessible telephones).

The data for the accessibility features was collected in July 2025 by searching each official station page on the National Rail website.