Virgin Trains launches voice assistant for passengers with disabilities

The British railway company Virgin Trains, which belongs to the founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson, announced the launch of a new service to help people with limited mobility on trains. From February 26, 2019, customers can use Amazon Alexa voice assistant to book help from JourneyCare during boarding and disembarking from the train and reserve places for passengers with wheelchairs for their journey.

Previously, JourneyCare service on Virgin trains could only be booked by filling out a special form on the carrier’s website, or by phone after purchasing tickets. Amazon Alexa will greatly simplify the process by allowing passengers to immediately request the necessary assistance by giving a simple voice command. Note that in May 2018, Virgin Trains was the first in the world to start selling tickets to its trains through Alexa.

Alexa is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon that can make life much easier for the user: call a taxi, buy movie tickets online, turn on electrical appliances on and off, search for information on the Internet. At the same time, the smart system is controlled by voice commands in English and is very popular in the UK.

Virgin Trains believes that the new service will be in demand among passengers with wheelchairs, as well as blind and visually impaired passengers. Chris Thomson was one of the first to try the service, he has osteogenesis imperfecta, and he uses a wheelchair every day. He said: “Using JourneyCare on the Virgin Trains skill for Alexa is a fantastic asset. It does a great job of combining the two processes, making the whole experience much easier. It also comes in handy if I have any pain in my arms and I am unable to use a computer, phone or tablet to book my journey.”

The Virgin Trains skill for Alexa will remember the details, so they do not have to repeat the process.
On average the new service takes just two minutes, halving the time needed to complete an online form or call the helpline.

Toby Radcliffe, Customer Proposition Director, at Virgin Trains, said: “We are always looking at ways to improve the travelling experience for customers with disabilities and we are really pleased to be introducing this new update to our existing Alexa skill for customers needing to book extra assistance on their journey with us. We want to ensure train travel is accessible to as many people as possible and this is a further innovation in that direction.”