Penny Briscoe, head of the British Paralympic delegation, said it was an “utter disgrace” that Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, an 11-time Paralympic gold medallist, had been forced to “crawl” off the train.
The former wheelchair racer arrived on a LNER train at London's Kings Cross station on Monday evening with no one to assist her. Baroness Grey-Thompson had booked help to get her off the 7.15pm train from Leeds but missed it and took the 7.45pm train instead.
She said she was “under contract” and should have been helped off the train, but 20 minutes passed and no one had come.
“So I decided to crawl off the train,” the 55-year-old told the BBC.
She continued, “Trains were supposed to be step-free by January 1, 2020. It's so exhausting. I was so upset last night. I can manage to get off (the train) but there are so many other disabled people who can't and they would have been stuck there forever. This is just not right in this day and age.”
Speaking at Paralympic GB House in Paris, Mr Briscoe said: “This is something disabled people experience every day, it just doesn't get reported.”
“Disabled people should be able to get on and off the train and go about their daily lives but the reality is much more difficult than that. We as Paralympics GB strive to achieve a better world for disabled people. We and our athletes want change. There is still so much to do. We cannot take our foot off the accelerator in terms of pushing for change and creating a fairer society.”
An LNER spokesman told the BBC it was investigating the incident and was “sad to understand there was a problem”.
Briscoe, Chief of the British Paralympic Team (Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)
This is the first time Paris is hosting the Paralympics and Briscoe said the city is “on a path of accessibility”.
“We know that Paris bus services are 100% accessible,” she added. “The buses deployed for the athletes have six wheelchair spaces on every bus. The Olympics are improving Paris' accessibility. The Paris metro system is still developing.”
“The number of accessible toilets remains an issue in Parisian hotels, especially the older ones. There are one or two per hotel, but that is not enough to accommodate athletes and spectators with disabilities inside the premises. This is a global accessibility challenge. We had the same problem in Tokyo.”
“The goal for Paris' legacy is to use the Olympics to create a more accessible society for Parisians, and we must support that journey. It won't happen overnight.”
Baroness Grey-Thompson won a total of 16 Paralympic medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 4x100m relay between 1988 and 2004. She is Britain's fourth most decorated athlete in Paralympic history.
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(Boris Stroebel/Getty Images via Laureus)
