A disability activist missed her train at Liverpool Street station after staff refused to deploy a ramp for her and branded her “rude” when she complained.
Anna Landre, a wheelchair user, had arrived at the station 15 minutes before her train was set to depart for Cambridge.
But she told the Independent that Network Rail staff informed her that they could not help her as they were “really busy” - just five minutes before the train was due to depart.
She was subsequently informed that staff did not have ramp keys and could not help her. When a member of staff arrived it was too late and she missed her train.
After missing the train, Ms Landre spoke to a member of staff, in the hope she would be able to board a train half an hour later. She explained that she had the right to “turn up and go”, a service which allows disabled individuals to arrive at stations without pre-booking assistance.
But the member of staff then claimed she was “rude” and refused to assist her.
“I told him, I know my rights. I know the law. I don't need a lecture on it,” she told The Independent.
“He just kept going and I said it again. I'm just waiting for the next train, and he really didn't like that and said I was rude, and he would not help me.”
Ms Landre denied she was rude to the member of staff.
She wrote on X: “I do not believe I was rude — I believe this able-bodied man did not enjoy a young disabled woman speaking assertively back to him in the same tone he was using. And regardless, ‘rudeness' is not the standard for denial of ramp assistance. Abusiveness is, and I was certainly not that.
“I have asked for any bodycam footage of the interaction and to know exactly which words I said resulted in a denial of service.
“The fact is, disabled people reacting with anything other than gratefulness and deference for being granted basic human dignity is often perceived as rudeness.
“And the power nondisabled people have over our lives to enforce that dynamic is extraordinary. No trains for me today.”
A Network Rail spokesperson told the Standard: “We are really sorry that Ms Landre had this experience when using our station.
“Our director for the Anglia region, which includes responsibility for Liverpool Street station, spoke with Ms Landre this morning and personally apologised for her experience.
“Our aim is to provide a positive experience for each and every passenger and she should never have been denied assistance to board a train and we know we let her down.
“Our investigation into what went wrong continues and this will enable us to make changes and ensure such an experience isn’t repeated.”
In a follow-up post on Monday, Ms Landre confirmed she had received a call from Katie Frost, the route director for Network Rail, who apologised for the incident.
Ms Frost confirmed that she should not have been denied service and said that the staff at Liverpool Street Station had their body cameras switched off.
Instead, Ms Landre was told that she would be sent CCTV footage of the incident.
In a further post, the wheelchair user explained she was not interested in meeting with the team at Liverpool Street station as she had been left “traumatised and would prefer to never have to interact with them or use this station ever again”.
