Discrimination court win over UK’s ‘worst’ station for assistance ‘shows need for reform and culture change’

A judge has ordered Network Rail to compensate an access campaigner who was abandoned in a waiting-area after booking assistance at a station known among disabled passengers for providing the country’s worst assisted travel service.

Euston, the gateway for services from London to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, developed a reputation for assistance failures that was so bad that disabled people began using the hashtag #EustonWeHaveAProblem.

Doug Paulley, a leading campaigner on disability rights and accessible transport, won his case against Network Rail this week – and compensation of £1,325 – after taking a case for disability discrimination to the county court.

He and others have been raising concerns about Euston for years, with other disabled passengers branding it “the worst station for assistance in the country”, and an “absolute disgrace”.

Leeds County Court heard that Paulley (pictured) had booked assistance to help him with his luggage, finding his seat and boarding the sleeper service from Euston to Fort William in Scotland, on the evening of 6 March 2023.

But assistance staff failed to collect him from the first-class lounge, where he had said when booking assistance that he would be waiting, and where disabled passengers staying in accessible rooms on the sleeper service are allowed to wait*.

As a result, he had to make his own way through the crowded station and managed to board with support from the train operator Caledonian Sleeper with just a few minutes to spare before its departure.

Network Rail later claimed that no-one had let their assistance team know that Paulley was waiting, even though he had watched staff call the team from the lounge, and the details of where he would be waiting were included in his booking.

Network Rail had admitted that the much-criticised Passenger Assist mobile phone app and the “conduct” of the passenger assistance team at Euston had “created scope for confusion” over the booking, but it initially denied that its assistance team had been told of his arrival in the first-class lounge.

It eventually admitted during the court hearing that – contrary to what it had claimed in its defence – disabled people who have booked assistance do not have to report to the Euston assisted travel lounge.

Network Rail also eventually admitted that phone calls from the first-class lounge were made to the assistance staff at Euston, and that it had breached its duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act.

The court found that Network Rail had discriminated against Paulley, and that the incident had “undoubtedly caused stress, anxiety and loss of confidence”, although it found insufficient evidence of a “systemic failing” at Euston.

District judge Royle awarded Paulley £1,325 damages for injury to feelings, due to the discrimination he had experienced through Network Rail failing to escort him to the Caledonian Sleeper.

Paulley told Disability News Service: “It is the busiest station for assistance in the country and it seems to have more than its fair share of unacceptable failures.

“What bothered me wasn’t so much the hassle on the day of waiting for assistance that didn’t arrive and of having to make my own way down to the platform, it was the failure, once again, of the system.

“That system is there solely to supposedly ensure that disabled travellers can have some confidence in being able to travel with comparative ease and in safety.

“We all know that it frequently doesn’t work on the UK rail network, as demonstrated by Tanni the other week, and as so many of us experience in Euston.

“So I felt a dreaded sense of ‘here we go again’ with yet another repeat experience of failed assistance booking at Euston.”

He said he now hoped Network Rail would accept and explain its failure.

But he said what was really needed was “full reform”, with the introduction of level boarding, “scrapping Euston and starting again”, and a culture change so that a breach of passenger assistance is seen as “as much a critical incident as passing a signal at danger”.

But he added: “That won’t happen any time soon, though, so in the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing their cheque; as I will every time they do an assistance fail.”

Network Rail had not responded to requests to comment on the case by noon today (Thursday).

*Disabled passengers are allowed to wait in the lounge because it includes an accessible shower, whereas the showers on the Caledonian Sleeper are all inaccessible

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