A Critical Look At Wheel Chair Access At Darlington Train Station.
2.5
2.5
Date of visit: September 2015
overall Rating Text
Average
Darlington rail station has frequent train services that connect to most metropolitan cities in England. For example, to the South; London, Sheffield, York and to the north; Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The train station has decent adaption to allow easy access for wheel chair users. However, a critical look of the the entire station after the visit made me discover some shortfall in adaptability. For example, when coming through the train station from the North entrance, there are stair cases and no provision for wheel chair access. This, in my view makes wheel chair users to ambulate almost three times the distance an able bodied person would walk from the new fee paying car park. Secondly, facing north as one exits the train station, there is an underground subway on the left side. This subway is looked really steep for wheel chair ambulation. It could be very hard to ambulate the wheel chair up the steep or even impossible for most wheel chair users.
disabled Access In AndAround Text
Good
There is a disabled access to the toilets, ramps from the disabled car park and taxi drop off area.
parkingTransport Text
Good
The venues for disabled parking is just adjucent to the main short corridor to the train station and is very accessible. Public transport appears to support more of those who use taxis becuase the drop off point is also near to the corridor. The bus stop is not to far away as well.
accessibleToilets Text
Excellent
There is a clear sign and easily accessible.
staff Text
Excellent
They are very helpful. I observed a wheel chair user being ambulated over a ramp by a member of staff.
Additional Information
Overall it is easily accessible as it is near the town centre, bus lines, only a few miles to the main hospital and college / university. It is reasonably practical with regard to assistance with disabled / wheel chair users.
Comments
titania
11 Jul 2025
Hi - the sloping ramp is fine - I went up it on my mobility scooter the other day no problem :-) Technically my mobility scooter is only supposed to do a 6 degree gradient but it was no problem. I live in the area, and providing you approach the station from the Victoria Road entrance (the easiest one to get to from the town centre) then it is step-free throughout. There is another entrance on the other side of the station that is not accessible though I think but the Victoria Road entrance is the easiest one to get to anyway from the town centre and there are also car parks nearby there.
gavinandguidedog
11 Jul 2025
As a regular user of Darlington railway Station I think the first photograph should be removed as it does not represent either the Victoria Road entrance or the Parkgate entrances. Access to the toilet has recently been upgraded, it is accessed with a RADAR key on a panel to the left of the automatic door once in the toilet and the door is shut touch the electronic panel on the right and the light turns from blue to red.
