Once people have reached their destination, they usually need to return to their origin. This involves retracing their steps to undertake the return, or journeying on to another location.

People should be able to easily find the start of their return journey by re-tracing their travel path, but this is not always a smooth process, especially for those with accessibility requirements.

The in-vehicle/conveyance stage of a journey involves the passenger's interaction with the vehicle (bus, train, tram, aeroplane or ferry etc.) and potentially its driver. During this stage, the customer boards the vehicle, travels to their destination stop/station and alights.Ideally, the customer is able to board independently, quickly and effectively; have a safe, secure and comfortable experience on board the vehicle; is provided with information during the journey; and alights the vehicle easily at their desired stop/station.

In this part of The Whole Journey, we explore a person's journey across eight key stages.

People interact with supporting infrastructure during their journey. This includes ‘hard’ infrastructure such as bathroom facilities, drinking fountains, signage, seating, shelter, lighting, maps and timetables. It also includes the ‘soft’ infrastructure such as customer service staff, other public transport operator staff and people involved in their journey.People with disability have highlighted the importance of both hard and soft infrastructure during their journeys.

5.1 Mainstreaming whole journey thinking in business practice

5.1.1 Business planning

Referencing the Whole Journey Guide in corporate documents is an effective way to mainstream whole journey thinking. For example:

People may need to transfer to another transport mode or route at some point during their journey. To do this, they exit the service, navigate their way through an interchange or other environment to the next service, and then board. Changing services or modes occurs at an interchange. Some of these transfers occur in a purpose built interchange, while others require travellers to exit one service/form of public transport and travel to their next stop or station, usually by the urban street network.

Pre-journey planning generally takes place before someone leaves their location to start their public transport experience. It involves accessing information about public transport routes, service timetables and any required connections and conditions at the destination, from:

There are a range of factors that sit outside the public transport system but which influence the accessibility of a journey using public transport. This section highlights some of the influencing factors to be considered when planning for whole-of-journey accessible public transport.

2.1 The varied needs of users

The expectations of people with disability are just as varied as those of other public transport users—they have their own individual needs and preferences.

To enter the public transport system, people need to travel from their location to a public transport node such as a bus stop, train station, ferry terminal or airport.