Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson says she received online abuse after having to 'crawl' off train

Published: Aug 27, 2024 Duration: 00:07:09 Category: News & Politics

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T gay Thompson uh 11 times par Olympic gold medalist is with us now um it's good to see you thanks for taking the time to join us I want to talk to you about what happened on an Ln train in just a second but first um Paro Olympics um can they ever match up to how spectacular they were in London London was incredible uh and it absolutely raised the bar but I don't want it to be the best par Olympics ever because that's not good for the movement I'd like it to be one of the best I mean Paris have la out their stall they had parins as part of the final torch lighting parade um you know they've used the same logos the same brand in so you know they're really Keen to do a you know a very strong job and you know if the athletes perform well British athletes are looking in good shape then you know it just takes it to a whole new audience then normally um second I think on the um medals table uh no small amount down to the 11 that you won in your career yeah I mean Britain's always punched above its weight in terms of size of a country um China will be very difficult to beat they're such a huge Nation they have something 80 million disabled people probably more um it's going to be interesting what France does you know they really stepped up and Beyond expectations at the Olympics uh and USA you know top in the medal table which we probably didn't expect so they're going to come through strong so you know the targets 100s 140 medals um all the athletes can do is control the training they do um you can't control the other countries so um you know I I think we'll see some brilliant gold medals some great performances across Sports and also some unexpected things that you know we we didn't expect that's really na way of saying it but you know where someone STS up to a really big performance um I believe that the um the northwest of England uh God's own country in my opinion uh was the biggest region for medal Hall uh in the Olympics do we have a region for paralympians as well do you think oh you know what I I love doing that regional thing you know when sort of Yorkshire decides it's better than everyone else or no you um no I don't think we've done it in in in that way but maybe we should start it for these games yeah I can't believe you mixed up Yorkshire and Lancashire then Tammy I deliberately say York sorry talk to me about what on Earth happened on this train at King's cross oh so um I was coming down from leits uh missed missed my train uh at quarter 7 got to the station at 7:30 uh and the uh the staff there put me on uh the quarter 28 train got to London no one to meet me left a few minutes before I um started posting ringing sending text messages uh and when I've been on for 16 minutes I decided that there was no one there that so I basically got out my chair onto the floor by the vestibule um and uh had to push my chair off onto the platform and then kind of crawled off off the train um at that point you know I just wanted to get back to where I was staying you know pack to go to Paris and and not wait around any longer I mean that's absolutely shocking what have they said about it um well I had had a phone call from a senior member of the team while I was on the platform Le leaving the station they're can launch a full investigation the chief exac personally apologized to me but you know this is not the only time it's happened um you know I've got a platform and that's why I talk about accessibility on trains loads of disabled people don't have that and it's been really interesting yesterday lots of people have emailed me to say they've had problems you know across the whole train Network you know the comp complaints they're making are not being resp responded to they're being fobbed off you know Len are are normally a lot better than this um and I think that's why it's been shocking for a lot of people uh but you know there is a problem with the whole network you know about and actually what's been fascinating interesting is is some of the the backlash I've had I've had emails from people saying how dare I be out on a bank holiday you know I should be at home I shouldn't you know dare to travel without anyone else um and how dare I miss a train so it it's interesting to see some of the attitudes towards the disabled people that are still out there what talk to me about the emotions you were feeling when you realize nobody was coming and you had to put your chair on the platform first and then you had to crawl off the train is it shock is it Fury is it embarrassment is it hope that some people will see you and and come to your Aid mostly it was anger um you know that I've been put on a train so in my mind you know there's that there's a contract between me and the system that somebody knew that I was on a train um the booking system you know every train company has a different way of doing it there's a passenger booking app which is just bolted on the front of a system that doesn't work terribly well and we have a legal right to turn up and go you know we we don't have to book assistance I can just turn up at the train station I don't you know have have any rights to be on a train that's leaving in the next two minutes but you know I I do have a right to to not book every disabled person does um I sometimes think it's it's much harder when you haven't bugged when you have to turn up at a train station and and depending which company is which station you almost have to beg to get on a train you know I haven't booked is it okay you know please can I get on a train you know and and that's more humiliating than you know what I went through but um I'm lucky I can still get off the train just you know there there are thousands of disabled people who can't do that and and would have been stuck in you know I was trying to think about pulling the emergency cord couldn't actually reach it um and that would have delayed the train going north so you know there's all these things going going through your heads while actually I just wanted to get out of the the station what was your onward Journey like um over to Paris oh that was great it um it was quite funny arriving at Eurostar yesterday I think they might have seen some of the media coverage uh so they couldn't do enough for me but um generally um you know I i' I've had good experiences on on on them uh but the the the public transport system you know just isn't isn't working for lots of people um and certainly the the train network isn't working for disabled people okay well I hope you enjoy the uh Paralympics it's good of you to take the time to join us this morning thank you thank you shocking isn't it the managing director of Ln David horn replied to Tanny onx saying my sincere apologies for this tny something has clearly gone wrong here and we've let you down we'll investigate what went wrong and share the details

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