UK
Former British Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson forced to ‘crawl off’ train after arriving at King’s Cross
Former British Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson said she was forced to “crawl off” a train after arriving at London’s King’s Cross.
The Welsh wheelchair racer, who has 11 gold medals to her name, repeatedly posted on social media platform X late on Monday night after there was no passenger assistance to greet her as the LNER train from Leeds got into the capital.
The train arrived at King’s Cross just after 10pm, and after waiting for about 16 minutes, Baroness Tanni said she “decided to crawl off”.
One of her X posts read: “@LNER who do I need to call to get off this train!!! It got to KGX 10 mins ago!!!!!”
Another just over 10 minutes later said: “At 22.17 (train got in at 22.02) I decided to crawl off. Had to move all my stuff onto the platform. Member of cleaning staff offered to help. They’re not insured.”
The six-time London wheelchair marathon winner said she is in London to travel to Paris for the Paralympics on Tuesday, which officially begin on 28 August.
LNER managing director David Horne apologised to Baroness Tanni saying “something has clearly gone wrong” and the company will investigate the incident.
Baroness Tanni told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday that she had booked assistance to help her off the 7.15pm train but ended up on the 7.45pm after missing the first.
Despite getting on the later train, she said she “had a contract” to be met at the other end.
She decided to crawl off the train after waiting nearly 20 minutes for assistance. Pic: PA
“Legally I am allowed to turn up and ask to get on a train,” she said.
“We were meant to have level boarding in the UK on 1 January 2020 under the Disability and Discrimination Act but government has kicked the can down the road.
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“I can just about get off the train if I need to, but there are loads of people that can’t. I can’t really crawl but sit on the floor and drag my legs. There was no one around and I was very angry last night.
“If the train manager hadn’t seen me crawling off, I would have had to pull the emergency cord and I would have delayed the train going north.”
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An LNER spokesperson said: “We are sorry to understand there has been an issue at London King’s Cross station on Monday evening.
“We are in the process of investigating this and are in contact with the customer directly.”