Train bosses have been forced to U-turn on a decision to turn the entire National Rail website grey in tribute to Prince Philip – because it left visually-impaired travellers struggling to use it.
The website, a hub for people to read timetables and book rail travel, turned black-and-white in tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh, who died aged 99 on Friday.
Government guidance for the period of national mourning suggests organisations use “black edging or black banners”, but several organisations have chosen to grey out their entire sites, including National Rail and the Greater London Authority.
On Monday, however, the rail website seemingly admitted defeat, announcing it would make “further changes” in response to a barrage of negative feedback about its new look.
The further changes appear to have meant simply reverting the site back to its usual colours.
Users had described the original decision to turn the page grey as “utterly ridiculous”, and claimed it made train times “extremely difficult to read”.
Others suggested the switch could be in breach of disability discrimination laws.
Industry body the Rail Delivery Group, which runs the National Rail site, issued a statement on Monday that said: “The National Rail Enquiries website has been temporarily grey-scaled as a mark of respect following the death of HRH Duke of Edinburgh on Friday.
“We are listening to feedback about how people are using the website and are making further changes today to make it more accessible to all our customers.”