A wheelchair user was forced to drag himself up the stairs to the train station platform, saying staff refused to help because of health and safety policies.
Chris Nicholson, an athlete and spokesman for the sports brand Myprotein, was traveling to an event in London on Friday when the accident happened at Milton Keynes station.
The former rugby player had to cross to the other side of the station for a connecting train, but the elevator was broken, forcing him to climb the stairs in 31C (88F) heat.
Nicholson said staff refused to help him use the stairs, saying they had told him they could not help him because of “health and safety policies and would be at risk if they helped me.”
“I decided to go up the stairs, how?” Pulling my chair with one hand, I push off one hand and gather my legs every step of the way! ”He wrote in an Instagram post. He describes being “in agony and half in tears.”
Nicholson said another man saw him fight and helped him carry his wheelchair before an assistant manager stepped in to carry his bags.
“We are in 2022, access must be given, not privilege,” Nicholson said. He called for policies to change “to support everyone collectively”, adding: “Such things happen every day to people with different types of disabilities”.
In a video also posted on Instagram, Nicholson explained in detail why he shared his experience on social media. “People like me, who have different abilities than able-bodied people, should have the right to access all amenities, just like everyone else. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in a wheelchair or on crutches – you have to have access to it,” he said.
“The fact that people do not make things easily accessible to those who are of different backgrounds, different abilities, is wrong. The fact that things are not in place to take care of them is wrong, and the fact that people are treated differently is also wrong.
Nicholson, who has more than 28,000 followers on Instagram, said nearly 3,000 people have sent him a message that they have had similar experiences. “It’s absolutely shocking,” he said.
A spokesman for Avanti West Coast said: “We have reported this incident and we are sorry to hear about the client’s experience.
“Since then, we have been in contact with the client – who arrived safely at his destination on Friday night.
“We are also liaising with London Northwestern Railway – the company that operates the trains responsible for running Milton Keynes Station – as they investigate the circumstances.
London Northwestern Railway declined to comment.
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