Traffic & Travel: Northern to trial British Sign Language announcements on trains

Passengers will first see the new BSL visuals on trains between Manchester Victoria and Leeds to interpret information such as station announcements.

Census data in 2021 showed that in addition to spoken languages, BSL was the main language of 22,000 people.

Marc Silverwood, onboard systems manager at Northern, said: “We know that rail travel can be daunting for anyone with specific needs, and I really hope this makes a difference to give people confidence to travel by rail.”

Northern is looking for partners – charities, organisations or experts who could help provide sign language interpreters for the project.

Marc added: “We’re looking out for people who could help with this scheme to interpret our announcements and who could share their expertise with us – so we can create the best possible service for our BSL passengers.”