Our third family-friendly trains scorecard exposes a UK railway split between pioneering operators learning the lessons for success when it comes to catering for families travelling with young children, and others who continue to fall behind.

The campaign’s scorecard assesses 23 rail operators from across the UK on a number of family-friendly criteria, covering on-train facilities, station accessibility, support services, and information provision. While there are two clear leaders and a growing group of operators beginning to make marginal improvements, five of the country’s major operators serving significant portions of the network (c2c, Govia Thameslink Railway, Great Western Railway, South Western Railway, and TfL Rail) continue to refuse to even respond to the questionnaire.

Key Findings

• The response rate compared with 2023 improved from 48% in 2023 to 78% in 2025, with 18 out of 23 operators participating, suggesting greater industry awareness
• Merseyrail sets a new standard with a score of 8/10, demonstrating comprehensive family-friendly design
• LNER maintains leadership among long-distance operators with 6.5/10
• Critical gaps remain with only 2 operators providing adequate buggy space and just one achieving level boarding; 72% have no family disruption policies

Standout Successes

Merseyrail’s exceptional performance included full marks for dedicated buggy spaces with nearby seating and being the only operator to achieve comprehensive level boarding between platform and train – marking a real revolution in accessibility on a local network. 

LNER continued to lead among long-distance operators, excelling in staff training and demonstrating good practice as one of only two operators with family-specific disruption policies. As LNER has signed our Family Friendly Pledge to never order a new train without providing dedicated space for unfolded buggies we hope to see its score rising even further in future. 

There are encouraging signs from a number of other operators committing to progress in some areas, such as dedicated priority pushchair areas (London Overground), offering passenger assist services to parents travelling solo with young children (Eurostar, Southeastern, Transport for Wales) and advertising multi-use spaces to parents with buggies (West Midlands Railway). 

In addition, a number of operators (ScotRail, Southeastern, Transpennine Express) indicated their ambition to include space for unfolded pushchairs in their next trains. While this will take some years to come to fruition, it is encouraging to see operators finally giving serious consideration to factoring the needs of families into rolling stock design. 

Persistent Problems

Despite some progress, fundamental issues remain largely unaddressed, and most operators have made no noticeable progress since 2023.

Only 2 out of 18 responding operators scored full marks for buggy space provision, a fundamental requirement for travel with young children. Several operators continue to try to score points by claiming wheelchair spaces as ‘multi-use’ spaces, while also admitting that these are legally protected for wheelchair users.

Comprehensive level boarding remains available from just one operator (Merseyrail) across their entire network, despite the obvious accessibility benefits. The persistent reliance on staff-operated ramps ignores the reality that staff are often unavailable and passenger assistance is not uniformly extended to small children, leaving solo parents in particular facing safety hazards when boarding.

All rail passengers are aware that sometimes journeys do not go as planned – however, 72% of operators who responded to the survey do not have disruption policies that account for the specific needs of families with young children, for example recognising the need for accessible alternative transport when many families travelling by train will not necessarily have access to car seats.

Looking Forward

Every assessed category has at least one operator achieving top marks, proving solutions are readily available. While some of these more significant improvements cannot happen overnight – operators may only purchase new trains once a decade, and changes to level boarding infrastructure require significant investment – quick wins are possible. 

We call on operators to focus on the benefits of improved staff training, better signage and disruption policies that consider the needs of passengers of all ages – and to sign our Family Friendly Pledge, committing to never order new trains without dedicated buggy spaces separate from areas protected by law for wheelchair users.

The technology exists, successful models are in operation, and the business case is clear. Family-friendly rail travel isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s essential for the industry’s future.

You can read the full scorecard report, including the questions and scoring matrix, here: