A mobility scooter user has said she now dreads travelling home from work after being left stranded on a train when nobody came to help her get off at her stop. Just days before, she said passengers had to help her off a train after a guard said that there was no ramp for her to use.
Claire Fisher, 55, uses a mobility scooter due to arthritis and relies on the train and her scooter to commute to work in Swansea, using a Great Western Railway service in the mornings and a Transport for Wales (TfW) service in the evenings. However, on Thursday, March 6, she was left on the train for over 14 miles from her stop after no guard came to help her get off.
Claire had been travelling on the 6.15pm Transport for Wales service to Carmarthen on Thursday, March 9, after an earlier service was cancelled and planned to get off at Burry Port. But, when the train pulled into her stop, she said she waited for a guard before the train pulled out of the station with her on it.
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Claire said: "The train was a little busier because they'd cancelled the previous service, so I'm sat there in between two carriages because there's no room to manoeuvre my scooter into a disabled space. I'm sat there waiting - no sign of the guard as we pull into Burry Port. The doors open and I'm waiting for the guard to come. Then the doors close and the train pulls out the station with me still on it."
After pulling the emergency call button, Claire said she was told the guard did not know she was there. However, she said that when she was helped on board the train at Swansea station, she was told that the guard had been informed she was on the train and would need assistance. Subscribe here to our daily newsletter for the latest news in your inbox
Claire said she was eventually told the train would have to go to Carmarthen as there was a better chance of getting her a taxi home. "I'm obviously a nervous wreck - I'm crying, I'm shaking, I've rung my husband in tears because he was expecting me," she said. At Carmarthen Station, Claire was escorted into the waiting room and given a cup of coffee while waiting for a taxi.
"At 7.40pm, it was 'There's not going to be a taxi. You're going to have to get on the 8pm service back home.' By the time I'd got back home, it was 8.40pm," Claire said. She has emailed a complaint to TfW, but added she is now "terrified" of travelling home in the evenings.
Just days earlier, travelling on the 6.15pm service to Carmarthen on Monday, March 6, Claire said that, once the train pulled into Burry Port, she was informed by a guard that there was no ramp to help her get off and she instead had to be assisted by passengers.
"He said, 'We've got no ramp, so how are you going to get off the train'," Claire said, adding that she was told by the guard that there wasn't one on the train and he didn't know where it was. "Some of the other passengers helped me off and the guard dragged my buggy off the train.
"The platform at Burry Port is quite low, so there's a good 12 inch step down onto the platform. I'm short, so it's bad enough at the best of times, never mind when you're riddled with arthritis and can barely move. That was bad enough."
Claire has sent an email to TfW, but did said she not receive an apology or a response. "It's just excuse after excuse after excuse. There's no acknowledgement or apology," she said. "I'm made to feel like it's all my fault. As I said to my daughters, it's not that I want the assistance. I need it."
After starting a new job in Swansea, it is only Claire's third week of using the service. "I'm absolutely dreading going home. On Friday [March 10] I refused to get on the train until a guard came and told me he knew I was on the train," she said.
Marie Daly, Chief Customer and Culture Officer at Transport for Wales, said: “We’d like to apologise to Claire for her poor experience while using our services. We’re disappointed the service provided fell short of what she or we expect, and we’re looking into it as a matter of urgency.
“We’re committed to building a fully accessible rail network for Wales and the Borders and this is at the forefront of our planning. While a significant amount of work has been done in recent years to improve accessibility there is still a lot of work to be done to transform our trains and stations, and ensure customers receive any assistance that they require.”
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