Travelling with Confidence - Bromley Mencap. Monday 2nd March 2026
On a warm sunny Monday afternoon, we welcomed 14 learners from Bromley Mencap and their tutors to Bromley South station for a trip to Swanley.
The Travelling with Confidence trip was designed to build on classroom learning delivered the previous month, to raise the learners’ confidence to travel by rail, for either independent or assisted journeys.
On arrival it was clear that the learners had remembered important information form our earlier classroom session. They knew that they should not travel without a valid ticket for their journey and that they should always keep off the tracks.
Bromley South station has a bus interchange, short-stay pick-up/drop-off bays, a taxi rank, sheltered cycle parking and level access to the ticket office. Our learners had walked to the station from their learning hub.
The station is staffed 24 hours a day and has a ticket and information office to help with travel enquiries and booking tickets. A touch screen railpoint is available for journey planning, along with departure screens in the booking hall.
The gateline to the platforms can be operated by paper tickets, e-tickets, and tap-and-go services in the Transport for London travel area (e.g. Oyster card). There is a wider gate for those with bulky luggage or accessibility needs and staff at the gateline to offer help. All of the platforms can be accessed by lifts.
On the platform we checked the platform number, looked at the matrix displays confirming times for the next services, the stations trains would stop at and periods of future disruption. We saw the Help Points that can connect you remotely to staff, who can answer questions about your travel.
Whilst waiting we heard announcements over the tannoy of future service disruption and the various services arriving and departing the busy station. It wasn’t long before our train arrived and we boarded a carriage.
The plan had been to board through two sets of carriage doors, however we were waiting just beyond the end of the train and this became impractical. A youth football team were also boarding through the same doors, and the tannoy announced to “use all the doors to board this service”. Everybody remained calm and we all boarded safely, then agreed how the group would split to use both doors to leave the train.
At Swanley we continued our learning, leaving the platform area to see the help points, departure screens, ticket vending machine, ticket office and tap-and-go point.
One of our learners mentioned the Freedom Pass, leading to discussion of Boundary Zone tickets that allow travel to continune beyond London Travel Card zones. The key message was to seek staff assistance. Ticket Vending Machines can display a confusing array of options, explaining your journey to a person for their advice helps you to make the right ticket choice.
After giving out souvenir pens as a reminder of our trip, we headed back to the platforms to wait for our train, using the train length signage to judge the right point on the platform to be able to use both doors easily. Once safely back at Bromley South we said goodbye to the group, thanked them for their time and reminded them to complete their feedback surveys.
We would like to thank Matt Fraser, Community Relations Manager at Southeastern for assisting us on the trip, and everyone on the Southeastern team at both stations who helped us on the day and with planning for the event.
