With less than a week to go until the start of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, East Midlands Trains is reminding people to plan their train travel and take advantage of the special rail fares still on offer.  Special 2012 Games Trains Tickets are still available to Paralympic ticket holders by booking online at www.nationalrailgamestravel.co.uk.  These tickets are designed to allow more flexibility by allowing spectators to change the time they return should an event be unexpectedly rescheduled, or if they simply wish to remain longer.

Examples of advance fares still available include:
·      Sheffield to London St Pancras – Standard Class return £28 or travel in First Class for £40 return
·      Derby/Nottingham to London St Pancras – Standard Class return £26 or travel in First Class for £38 return
·      Leicester/East Midlands Parkway to London St Pancras – Standard Class return £24 or travel in First Class for £36 return
·      Corby/Kettering/Wellingborough to London St Pancras – Standard Class return £14 or travel in First Class for £26.

East Midlands Trains will running additional late night services every evening and will be providing almost 40,000 extra seats for passengers during the Paralympic Games.  In addition, to cater for passengers attending the opening ceremony on Wednesday 29 August, East Midlands Trains will also be re-timing two of its evening services to run later than normal.

Additional customer service and management staff will be on hand to provide extra assistance to passengers.  Passengers with special mobility requirements or passengers travelling in large groups are advised to pre-book assistance and travel using East Midlands Trains’ dedicated Assisted Travel and Group Travel Teams.

Neil Micklethwaite, Customer Service Director and Commercial Director for East Midlands Trains, said:  “With the Paralympic Games widely anticipated to be the best ever, we’re certain that many people will take the opportunity to be part of this great event.

“We’re planning to provide thousands of extra seats during these Games, and will be continuing to run our late night services which worked successfully during the Olympic Games.

“There are still some great value tickets available for people to buy at www.nationalrailgamestravel.co.uk and we’d urge anybody planning to travel during the Paralympic Games to book ahead and take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

“As with the Olympic Games, we’ll have extra staff on hand to help passengers with any assistance they need, but we would strongly advise that passengers with special mobility requirements use our dedicated Assisted Travel Team to pre-book their travel with us.”

Millions of pounds have been invested in the East Midlands Trains’ network in recent years to make it more accessible for all passengers.  This includes investment in improvements such as new lifts, low counter ticket windows, accessible toilets, additional ramps, tactile maps, induction loops and power-assisted doors at stations.

East Midlands Trains will continue to provide travel information and advice in the run-up to and during the Paralympic Games through a number of channels including social media channels. 

Mr Micklethwaite concluded:  “Throughout the Olympics, we delivered a high quality, reliable train service for our passengers and we are now looking forward to playing a key role in helping people travel to and from the Paralympic Games.”