Not a great arrival, but got back on track
4
4
Date of visit: September 2025
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: disabled toilet, wheelchair
Overall Rating
Good
My arrival at Sheffield train station made me quite anxious as no one from the team was there to meet me and they had to be notified by a member of the public. They were then also unable to locate a ramp so I could get off the train. The staff did make sure I was taken care of and when I returned to the station for my journey home, I had a much better experience. Like I always do, I had pre-booked my assistance for this train journey via the Passenger Assistance app. This usually means that a member of staff is waiting at my destination with a ramp or is on their way with one. When I arrived, I became nervous when there weren’t any staff to be seen on the platform. A lovely lady, who was trying to board the train for its onward journey, asked if I needed help and went to notify a member of staff that I was waiting. A member of staff then arrived, and let me know that all of the platform ramps in the station had been moved elsewhere for maintenance, so there were none available on the platform to get me off. To my understanding, all trains have an onboard ramp as well. However, the staff member was unsure where to locate it and once it had been located, it must have been faulty as they were unable to use it. At this point, another staff member went to locate where the platform ramps had been taken and brought one to get me off. It was a very nerve-wracking experience as the train was shortly due to leave the station again. There wasn’t much communication from staff about what was happening. For example, I would have appreciated someone letting me know if the train was going to be held until I was able to get off. My experience when I was returning home was better though. I met a member of the station staff by the main information desks who let me know which platform my train would be boarding at. As we were quite early, we were given the option to follow the staff member over to the platform now or to meet them at the platform later. We opted to meet them later on as this gave us an opportunity to get any drinks and snacks we wanted and use the toilets before our train. The main station building was really nice, it had a good selection of shops and food options and had lots of natural light. There were lots of information desks available and a digital board providing BSL translated information. There was even a tactile map of the whole station which I thought was absolutely incredible!
Disabled Access In and Around
Good
The main station concourse has two main entrances, one leads straight out of the front of the building and the other is past the toilets and shops and comes out of the side. From the side entrance you come straight out to a taxi rank where I found there was always a large number of taxis waiting here. Continuing along this road there is a zebra crossing which leads into the station car park. This section of pavement between the station and the car park is mainly covered, either by the station infrastructure or glass canopies. In the centre of the main building, before you head to the platforms, there is a tactile map of the entire station which I thought was incredible. I’ve not seen this in any other station in the UK before. As well as being tactile, it uses colours and letters so it’s also simple to understand visually. There was also a digital display with information being provided in BSL. This was located next to the information desks and the assistance meeting area. The main building had a number of shops available, including a WHSmith, Starbucks, M&S Food, Upper Crust and a newsagent. There were some other smaller food kiosks in certain spots too. There was a large area with toilets, which was clearly signposted. It included male and female toilets and two accessible toilets. There were also accessible toilets on both of the other main islands of platforms. All of the accessible toilets required a RADAR key to access them. There was a large area of information desks at one end of the building, these had intercoms to make communication easier and there was a hearing loop symbol at these desks. There was one lowered counter but the rest weren’t so high that I found them uncomfortable to communicate from my wheelchair. There was a separate information kiosk which had a poster mounted on the side that said “meeting point” below a wheelchair symbol. This kiosk seemed to only be manned during busier periods with the main information desks taking over that role during quieter times. There was a decent amount of seating available beside these information points, as well as some seating at some of the shops within the building too. The doors at the station entrances and for all the waiting rooms had automatic sliding doors which opened as you approached them. All the lifts had tactile buttons with Braille on them. The lifts were all fairly spacious and had handrails inside them. There was also an additional alarm button very close to the floor in case someone fell and couldn’t reach the height of the other buttons. There were some signs inside the lift with emergency contact numbers and there was also a Braille sign next to it. I’m not familiar with Braille so I wasn’t able to confirm if it was a direct translation of the notice with the emergency contact information. The station is made up of three islands of platforms which all have lifts providing step-free access between the main building and each platform. A footbridge connects the lifts for each platform, the tram platforms and the main concourse for the station. Platforms 1A and 1B were based slightly below the main station building. The lift that travelled up to the footbridge from the station entrance, also traveled down to platforms 1A and 1B. As this is a smaller platform which is connected to the main building, these platforms didn’t have their own toilet facilities, waiting room, or refreshment options. The middle island provided access to platforms 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A and 5B. This had a covered and heated waiting room, with seating in it, food and drink options and toilet facilities including an accessible toilet. The third island provided access to platforms 6A, 6B, 7, 8A and 8B. This island also had a covered and heated waiting area, food and drink shops and toilets including an accessible toilet.
Accessible facilities: Lift to all areas, Step-free entrance, Seating at regular intervals, Step-free access to most areas
Parking & Transport
Good
I travelled to this place by train
The train services currently available from Sheffield train station are East Midlands Railway, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express and Northern Trains. These provide services to locations such as London St Pancras, Norwich, Liverpool Lime Street, Edinburgh Waverley, York, Newcastle, Plymouth, Reading, Cleethorpes, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, Nottingham, Scarborough, Lincoln, Huddersfield, Doncaster and other stations along the way. Connected to the station is a tram stop where you can access the SuperTram services. From the Sheffield Station tram stop, you can access the Blue and Purple lines. The Blue line travels from Halfway to Malin Bridge. The Purple line travels from Herdings Park to Cathedral. In order to connect to the Yellow and Black lines you would need to travel one stop into the city centre where you would be able to access all four services via the Fitzalan Square tram stop. There is a car park for the station, which is operated by Q-Park and has a height limit of 2.10 metres. There are a total of 678 parking spaces across multiple floors and this includes 11 accessible parking bays and 8 electric charging stations. It’s a paid car park with a number of machines available on the ground floor, just inside the pedestrian entrance to the car park. You can also pay via PayByPhone or RingGo. The car park is open 24/7. Just 220 metres from the station is Sheffield Interchange, where there are a large number of bus and coach services available. There is a covered walkway once you cross the road outside the station which ends at a zebra crossing that leads to the main building at the bus station. The National Express and FlixBus coach services that are available from here are available from stands E1 - E4 but there are no facilities to print or buy coach tickets at the station. This must be done in advance of your arrival. There are also a large number of local Sheffield bus routes that stop here. The bus routes available are: 2, 7, 8, 9a, 18, 29, 41, 43, 44, 50, 50a, 50b, 53, 56, 57, 65, 73, 80a, 86, 95, 95a, 120, 135, 208, 216, 218, 252, 256, 257, 258, 271, 272, X3, X5, X7, X17, X54, X71 and X74.
Accessible facilities: Drop-off or pick up point, Public or on street parking
Accessible Toilets
Good
There were a number of accessible toilets available throughout the station. In the main concourse area, there was a clearly signposted area for toilets. In here there were two accessible toilets which both required a RADAR key to get inside. These toilets seemed to have been more recently updated than those on the platforms and felt cleaner and better maintained. They were fairly small accessible toilets with some space for a right-side transfer. Behind the toilet seat was a plastic back support that could be leaned on. On the wall behind the toilet, and to the right as you looked at it, there were two grab rails. One could be raised and lowered as required and the other was a fixed, vertical grab rail. Just to the right of these was a very small shelf. On the other side of the toilet was a fixed, horizontal grab rail which was mounted below the toilet roll dispenser. The flush lever was mounted on the wall behind the toilet and was on the side closest to the transfer area, so you didn’t have to reach over the toilet to get to it. In front of the toilet was a small sink with fixed, vertical grab rails mounted on either side of it. It had a single tap which twisted to control both the temperature and flow of the water and was manually operated (no automatic sensors). Above the sink was a manual soap dispenser and to the left was an automatic hand dryer. Between the toilet and the sink, an emergency red cord was hanging freely to the floor. The two main platform islands that weren’t connected to the main building had at least one accessible toilet on the platforms themselves. They all required a RADAR key to access them and the doors opened outwards. These were small accessible toilets which had a small amount of space for a right-side transfer. Behind the toilet seat was a small, cushioned back support that you could lean on. There were two grab rails mounted behind and to the right of the toilet as you looked at it. One of these could be raised and lowered as required and the other was a fixed, vertical grab rail. Mounted on the left of the toilet was a fixed, horizontal grab rail which was below the toilet roll dispenser. The flush lever for the toilet was located on the cistern which was behind the toilet seat and raised up slightly. It was on the side closest to the transfer area meaning I didn’t have to reach across the toilet to get to it. To the right of the toilet, as you looked at it, was a small shelf. A small sink was placed just in front of the toilet which had a single tap which was manually operated (no automatic sensors). The tap twisted to control both the temperature and flow of the water and had a slightly wider lever to push the tap in either direction. There were two grab rails mounted on either side of the sink and in between, there was a manual soap dispenser. To the left of the sink was an automatic hand dryer. Between the toilet and sink was an emergency red cord which was hanging freely to the floor.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
Average
As I mentioned in my overview, I had a bit of a poor start when I arrived at Sheffield station. Staff members weren’t there to meet me and when they were notified by a member of the public, I felt their communication with me was slightly lacking which made me very anxious. It seemed that perhaps there had been a lack of communication between the station staff which had led to the situation I was in. The staff were all pleasant and helpful and seemed to also be frustrated about the situation. But I would have appreciated them communicating with me more to show that they understood my concerns and to let me know what was happening. When I returned for my journey home, it was a much smoother experience. I had made sure we had a decent amount of time before our train, which definitely helped. We were met by a member of the assistance team who gave us the option to be shown to the platform or we could make our own way over and go via the shops or toilets. Once the train was nearly ready to board we were met by the same member of staff who brought the ramp and showed us to our seats and wheelchair space. Overall, I do think the staff were all really lovely. I just think the unfortunate ramp issues when I arrived led to some confusion and frustration, and left me feeling very anxious as I didn’t get many updates.
