Monday, 14 February 2022
- New signage aims to help customers understand best and safest route
- Works cost more than £70k
- Eight stations to be improved - including Sheffield, Kettering and Nottingham
East Midlands Railway (EMR) is rolling out wayfinding improvements across eight of its stations aimed at helping its customers use more logical and safer ways to navigate its sites.
The £73,000 project will deliver accessible wayfinding improvements at locations up and down EMR’s network, including Kettering, Wellingborough, Nottingham, Beeston, Bulwell, Newark Castle, Hinckley and Sheffield.
The new signage has been placed to allow customers to better understand how to get to a platform, exit, or entrance, as quickly and as safely as possible. EMR has also reduced sign clutter as much as possible, helping customers navigate the station environment with confidence and in a way that suits individual needs.
Standardising the language used on the signs is another feature of the work, helping customers to become familiar with the same words and better understand their meaning.
The project is wholly funded by EMR with the exception of a £3,000 match funding contribution from Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.
Depending on funding, similar wayfinding projects at other stations could also be rolled out in the future.
Examples of the works include:
Sheffield
The current signs in the concourse (directly below) show three separate way out lines. In the new design this has been changed to two, with different alignment disciplines to improve the wayfinding experience.
Bulwell
The installation of a new poster case that highlights the step free route to the town centre.
Helen Dolphin MBE, Chair of East Midlands Railway's Inclusivity Panel, said: "The Inclusivity panel is delighted to see the introduction of this much improved wayfinding signage.
"The signage will significantly improve the experience of customers, particularly those with disabilities where finding the quickest and safest route is vitally important. As a society we don’t always appreciate the difficulties people can have navigating around a station and this signage is going to make a big difference.”
Lisa Angus, Transition and Projects Director at East Midlands Railway, said: “We are always looking at better ways to help our customers navigate easily and safely around our stations.
“We hope this project will help in this regard and cut down the number of trips and falls which do occasionally happen when customers mistakenly take a more challenging route to either a platform, entrance or exit.”