ParalympicsGB chief of mission Penny Briscoe said it was an “absolute disgrace” that 11-time Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson was forced to “crawl out” of a train.
The former wheelchair racer arrived at London King’s Cross on a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train on Monday evening, but there was no one to help her. Baroness Grey-Thompson had booked assistance to help her get off the 7.15pm train from Leeds, but missed it and took the 7.45pm train instead.
She says she “had a contract” and should have been helped off the train, but after 20 minutes still no one came.
“So I decided I was going to crawl off the train,” the 55-year-old told the BBC.
She continued: “Trains should be stepless from 1 January 2020. It’s tiring. I was really angry last night. I can just about do it (get off the train) but there are many other disabled people who can’t and would be stuck until who knows when. In this day and age, that’s not good.”
Briscoe, speaking from ParalympicsGB’s home in Paris, said: “It’s the everyday experience of disabled people. It’s just not reported.
“As a disabled person you should be able to get on and off a train and go about your daily life, but the reality is much harder than that. At ParalympicsGB we are trying to inspire a better world for disabled people. We want change and our athletes want change. There is so much more to do and we can’t take our foot off the gas pedal when it comes to demanding that change and creating a fairer society.”
A spokesperson for the LNER told the BBC investigated the incident and was “sorry to hear there was a problem”.
ParalympicsGB chef de mission Briscoe (Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)
It is the first time Paris has hosted the Paralympic Games and Briscoe said the city is “on a path towards accessibility”.
“We know that their bus services are 100 percent accessible,” she added. “The fleet of buses that they have for the athletes has six accessible wheelchair spaces on each bus. We know that Paris has become more accessible because of the Games. Their metro system is still developing.
“The number of accessible bathrooms in hotels in Paris is still a problem, especially in the older hotels. It’s one or two per hotel and that’s not enough when you welcome disabled athletes or spectators in the area. It’s a global challenge in terms of accessibility. We had it in Tokyo.
“The goal of Paris is to use the Games to create a more accessible society for Parisians. We need to support them on that journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Baroness Grey-Thompson won a total of 16 Paralympic medals between 1988 and 2004 in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 4x100m relay. She is the fourth most decorated British Paralympic athlete of all time.
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(Boris Streubel/Getty Images for Laureus)
