GWR apologised after a wheelchair user crawled through three carriages to exit

In December 2025, Phoebe Tesoriere, 24, who has hereditary spastic paraplegia and uses a wheelchair, travelled from London Paddington to Bath Spa with her parents on Great Western Railway. The family spoke to the assistance desk and was taken to the train's only designated wheelchair space; her mother specifically asked whether a ramp and assistance would be waiting at Bath Spa and was assured they would.

At Bath Spa the carriage turned out to stop beyond the platform, out of ramp reach. Staff suggested staying on to Bristol Temple Meads and buying new tickets back — impossible, as her grandparents were waiting to drive them to Caerphilly — then suggested pushing the chair down the aisle; it did not fit. Tesoriere crawled on her hands and knees through three carriages. "I was crying. People were staring," she told BBC Wales.

GWR's investigation, completed in May after a same-day complaint, admitted the experience was "extremely poor" and "entirely avoidable" — "we let her down, both when we helped her board and at several points during her journey." It confirmed compensation, which remained unpaid as of the October 2026 report despite bank details sent, and said it had changed how it manages Passenger Assist for customers travelling from London Paddington. Tesoriere said GWR had "ignored every email I have sent" since June.

No fine; compensation promised in May 2026 was still unpaid nine months after the incident, and the family stopped using trains.

The ramp plan depended on the wheelchair-space carriage aligning with the platform, and nobody checked the train's formation.

Staff asked which station she was getting off at repeatedly during the journey yet never flagged that her carriage would not align at Bath Spa.

The fallbacks offered — travelling on and repurchasing tickets, or wheeling a chair down an aisle — ignored the passenger's actual constraints.

The aftermath compounded the failure: a five-month investigation and compensation that stayed unpaid despite repeated contact.

Accessibility fails in the handoffs: boarding help, carriage assignment and platform length are one system, and each team assumed another had it covered.

GWR told BBC Wales it was "really sorry", said Ms Tesoriere "should have been able to travel with confidence and dignity", and that it has apologised personally and made improvements to how it supports customers boarding at London Paddington; a spokesman said it was doing everything it could to complete the compensation "as quickly as possible". Her mother said the family has not used public transport since.