Video: Disabled comedian left stranded by ‘unacceptable’ mistake at York station

A comedian who hit the headlines after being forced to move her mobility scooter from a disabled space on a train has had another railway nightmare – at York station.

Tanyalee Davis said she was on a train from Peterborough to York to perform at the Greater Yorkshire Fringe on Friday when a ramp, which had been pre-arranged with a guard to be made available, was not brought.

She said it forced her to stay on the train and be diverted “an hour out of my way”.

In a YouTube post Ms Davis, who has dwarfism and relies on her specially-modified mobility scooter, said:

• We get to York. I am waiting and nobody is coming.

  People get off and they just assume that the guard will be coming and all of a sudden the train doors close and now I am off to Darlington.
  

‘We are very sorry’

She said that a helpful guard on the train had done “everything he could possibly do”, but the incident reflects a “another day, another trial” for a passenger with a disability.

A London and North Eastern Railway spokesman said: “We are very sorry for the unacceptable experience Ms Davis had whilst travelling with us.

“We are fully investigating the incident to understand what went wrong and to ensure that lessons are learnt for the future.”

The incident comes days after Canadian-born Ms Davis gained public attention after being reduced to tears when a railway guard made her move so that a woman could put her pram in the wheelchair area.

Her partner Kevin Bolden filmed the incident on his phone while they were travelling from Plymouth to Norwich on Sunday.

So humiliating

She said the guard announced over the Tannoy: “We’re going to be stopping in Taunton indefinitely because the woman in the mobility scooter is causing problems.

“They are videotaping me and threatening to put it on the internet.”

“That was the most despicable part – all of a sudden you have everybody’s eyes on you – and people are freaking out because they have connections to Gatwick and all of a sudden they know it’s because of me,” she added.

“It was so humiliating that I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

“When he announced it, it was so embarrassing. I had to sit there for the next two hours crying.

“He threatened to call the police and have us arrested because we were videotaping him.”

Great Western Railway (GWR) said the incident “should not have happened” and has apologised to Ms Davis.