Paralympic champion forced to 'crawl' off train as incident sparks outrage

A Paralympian was forced to crawl off her train due to lack of assistance. Tanni Grey-Thompson, a TV presenter and former wheelchair racer, sent a series of frantic tweets after she arrived at her station and found no staff members to help her disembark.

Grey-Thompson, who won 16 at the Paralympics including 11 golds, was traveling to King's Cross Station in London when the incident took place.

In a tweet, Tanni wrote: "Hey @LNER my train has arrived at KGX and there is no one to get me off", followed by "cleaning crew are on board". In a state of panic, Tanni tweeted the company again, informing them that she had been left alone on the train after the cleaning staff had also disembarked.

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She tweeted: "Cleaning crew are now leaving the train!!!! Who do I need to call to get off this train!!! It got to KGX 10 mins ago!! An LNER staff member responded to the former athlete's plea, saying: "Hello Tanni - I am just trying to call through to the London Kings Cross team leader to make them aware of this. Apologies this is happening - We should have someone with you shortly."

However, Tanni later tweeted the company to inform them that she had resorted to crawling off the train as no one had arrived to assist her. She wrote: "Well I've just crawled off. 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."

Outrage erupted on social media after she was left without assistance, prompting one individual to confront LNER online: "You know when you fail to assist disabled passengers it's unlawful right? Minimum £1200 compensation for a ONE OFF... this isn't a one off. Why can't you get your s**t together and function properly? You're in an industry based on comms and you can't even get the basics right."

LNER's travel assistance policy promises recompense for service failures, stating: "When you have booked assistance and it has not been delivered we will provide you with compensation for your journey.

"When your assistance was booked for travel on one of our trains we will offer you a full refund for the cost of the journey. If you were travelling on another train company's service, please contact that company who will arrange for appropriate redress."

Responding to the incident, an LNER spokesperson expressed regret: "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."