Guide Dog on a bus, by Richard Masoner, https://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/4668187364 used under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, said: “More needs to be done for our communities here in the North because we have a London-centric transport system This means that there are very few options for people that need high quality and round journey accessibility, like Audio-Visual announcements.”

“There is a lack of clear, audible information that is limiting access for many blind and partially-sighted people. This should be a requirement on all new buses, trains and trams.”

The ‘Talking Buses’ campaign launched by the Guide Dogs charity highlights the significant barriers that still exist for the visually-impaired and calls on the industry to make more progress improving accessibility.

Transport for Greater Manchester has made some inroads in increasing accessibility, in partnership with Henshaws, by providing a ‘Bus Hailer’ flip chart that notifies drivers of those who need additional assistance.  These can be collected free-of-charge from bus station Travel Shops.