London Waterloo Station awarded Autism Friendly Award

Network Rail at London’s Waterloo station has been granted the Autism Friendly Award by the National Autistic Society, the UK’s leading charity for autistic people. The station is the first Network Rail managed station to receive this award.

The Autism Friendly Award is a leading accreditation programme set up by the National Autistic Society to help businesses play their part to create more welcoming environments and make a difference to the lives of autistic people throughout the UK. To gain the award, businesses have to meet standards and follow a framework to demonstrate to customers that their business offers an autism-friendly environment and service, and over 300 organisations are now accredited.

The National Autistic Society has noted that Waterloo provides a good wealth of information for autistic visitors to the station. This includes a video guide to help people travel with confidence. The tour has been designed to support journey planning, give customers a clearer picture of the station before they travel, and reduce anxiety; this can be viewed on YouTube. Network Rail’s Autism Friendly Guide is available online, information on Waterloo’s quieter times, and how to arrange assistance or find information if it’s needed.

The station also provides a good amount of training to frontline staff on supporting autistic people. Currently, over 70% of Network Rail staff have received this training, with further training lined up which includes South Western Railway staff, who we have worked closely with to deliver these improvements to the station. Autism awareness is now a mandatory part of a new member of staff’s induction when joining Southern Stations at Network Rail.

Prior to the introduction of the Elizabeth Line, Waterloo was formerly the busiest railway station in the UK. Today, it is the third busiest, with 57.8m entries and exits last year and is a major gateway to the capital. The station handles commuters from south west London and Surrey as well as long distance services from Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Weymouth and Exeter. The size of the station posed challenges but Network Rail responded to these by signposting those to quieter routes.

In the future, the station team will be ensuring everyone is trained, while sharing those experiences across the region. The station team are also working with station partners about providing training to make Waterloo even more autism friendly.

Network Rail is committed to ensuring equal access to the railway and Waterloo is determined to build on this achievement and make the station as accessible as possible. In the long term, the Waterloo Masterplan will make the station more accessible while, in the short term, the station team are investigating ways to make the station more accessible to everyone.

Emily Haggard, Station Manager for Waterloo, said: “I am delighted that we have taken this step to be accredited by the National Autistic Society with Autism Friendly Award Accreditation. There are approximately 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK, as well as their three million family members and carers. Autism is a spectrum condition and autistic people have a range of strengths and challenges. Without the right support or understanding, autistic people can become extremely isolated. We take pride in putting passengers first and taking simple steps such as informing visitors to the station when the quieter times are and training our staff about looking after autistic passengers. We want the railway to be accessible for everyone and for everyone to get home safe every day. While this is a positive step, we know we can do more to make the station even more accessible for everyone.”

Christine Flintoft-Smith, Head of Autism Accreditation and Projects at the National Autistic Society, said: “We are delighted that Network Rail at Waterloo Station has achieved our Autism Friendly Award and they should be exceptionally proud of their achievement. There are lots of small changes that businesses can make to better support autistic people, and just a little understanding can go a long way. We’re looking forward to working with as many businesses as possible to help create a society that works for autistic people.”