accessibility

From our buses to our colleague training, we aim to always provide accessible and inclusive services to customers and colleagues.

As a regional bus operator who welcomes millions of customers on board every year, we know how important it is that our bus services support those with accessibility and mobility challenges.

Accessible buses

Every single one of our single- and double-decker buses in Yorkshire and Lancashire feature built-in wheelchair ramps.

Along with the ability to lower the bus to the curb, these ramps fold out to allow manual and electric wheelchairs of various weights and sizes to access the bus.

Every bus has at least one wheelchair space – with most of our buses in Harrogate, and large portions of our fleets in Keighley and Blackburn featuring two wheelchair spaces. This is now a standard feature on new bus orders for the future.

We know the value of two wheelchair spaces, because of our International Wheelchair Day collaboration with Henshaws Specialist College in North Yorkshire – check out the coverage of this event in the local press:

• THIIS Mobility and Disability national magazine
• Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce
• Your Harrogate, Local News from North Yorkshire

These buses also have wheelchair-facing next-stop announcement displays, and audio-visual next-stop announcements – which support customers with hearing and sight problems, helping them know where they are and when their stop is coming up.

As of 2026, all our buses are also fitted with Hearing Loop technology.

Colleague training and Action Groups

Our driver colleagues receive high-quality training and refresher courses year-round, all of which is conducted out of The Academy – our state-of-the-art in-house learning facility.

This includes wheelchair training (knowledge of how to use the wheelchair ramps and what issues customers in wheelchairs often experience), accessibility awareness, dementia awareness, and neurodiversity training, as well as awareness of hidden disabilities.

We also work closely with various disability action groups, such as Henshaws Specialist College in North Yorkshire, and Disability Action Yorkshire.

By collaborating with these incredible communities, we can better understand the challenges that customers with disabilities face when using our public transport.

We use this information and context to inform our decision-making – including the purchasing of new vehicles with two wheelchair spaces as standard and Hearing Loop technology.

We also accommodate assistance animals on our vehicles and in our customer spaces.