ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe said it is an “absolute disgrace” that 11-time Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson was forced to “crawl off” a train.
The former wheelchair racer arrived at London’s King’s Cross on Monday evening on a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train but there was no one there to assist her. Baroness Grey-Thompson had booked assistance to help her off the 19.15 train from Leeds but missed it and took the 19.45 train instead.
She says she “had a contract” and should have been assisted off the train but after 20 minutes, no one came.
“So I decided that I would crawl off the train,” the 55-year-old told the BBC.
She continued: “Trains were meant to be step free by January 1 2020. It’s exhausting. I was really angry last night. I can just about do it (get off a train) but there are lots of other disabled people who can’t and would have been stuck until who knows when. In this day and age it’s not right.”
Briscoe, speaking from ParalympicsGB house in Paris, said: “It’s the lived experience of disabled people on a daily basis. It just doesn’t get reported.
“You should, as a disabled person, be able to get on and off a train and go about your daily living but the reality is far more difficult than that. We’re trying, as ParalympicsGB, to inspire a better world for disabled people. We want change and our athletes want change. There’s still so much to do, and we can’t let our foot off the pedal in terms of demanding that change and creating a more equitable society.”
An LNER spokesperson told the BBC it was investigating the incident and was “sorry to understand there was an issue”.
ParalympicsGB chef de mission Briscoe (Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)
It is the first time Paris have hosted a Paralympics and Briscoe has said the City is “on an accessibility journey”.
“We know their bus services are a hundred per cent accessible,” she added. “The fleet of buses they’ve brought in for the athletes have six accessible wheelchair spaces on every bus. We know Paris have become more accessible because of the Games. Their metro system is a work in progress.
“The number of accessible bathrooms in hotels in Paris is still an issue, especially the older hotels. It’s one or two per hotel and that isn’t enough if you’re welcoming disabled athletes or spectators into the environment. It’s an accessibility challenge that is global. We had it in Tokyo.
“Paris’ objective in terms of legacy is to use the Games to create a more accessible society for Parisians and we have to support them on that journey, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Baroness Grey-Thompson won a total of 16 Paralympic medals across the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 4x100m relay between 1988 and 2004. She is ParalympicsGB’s fourth most decorated athlete of all time.
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(Boris Streubel/Getty Images for Laureus)