Injured University of Liverpool student made to ‘crawl’ onto train at Lime Street Station

A University of Liverpool student was forced to “crawl” onto her train after there was no ramp provided on the platform.

Suffering from a broken foot, 22-year-old Meg Castro attempted to board a train to London in order to attend a doctor’s appointment.

But having arrived 10 minutes before the train’s departure, Meg was told “there wasn’t enough time to get a ramp”, MyLondon reports. 

Injuring her foot earlier in the year, Meg has been “hopping” on crutches since February and was due to travel from Liverpool to London on an Avanti West Coast Train, so that she could attend a post-operation doctor’s appointment.

However, on arriving at Liverpool Lime Street, she was told by staff that there was not enough time to set up a ramp for her to board the 09:43 train. Instead, Meg had to “crawl” onto the train herself.

She said: “I got to the train 10 minutes before it was time to leave and they said there wasn’t enough time to get a ramp.”

Liverpool Lime Street station (via Google Maps)

Unfortunately, Meg’s difficulties didn’t stop there. When she arrived in Euston, where she was only able to manage thanks to the kindness of other passengers.

Getting off at Euston, Meg “kind of managed it without any assistance, other than people being nice”.

Meg, who is originally from Kent, spoke about her difficulties travelling with her injury. She said: “It’s been an absolute nightmare getting anywhere. This [her disability] is not permanent, so I feel like, unless you plan ahead and do it [travel] regularly, it’s quite difficult.”

She also added: “Because I’m quite strong, and fit before I did the injury, it means I can get over a lot of things that will be inaccessible to someone who’s slightly worse off, or in a wheelchair.

“I’m quite good at hopping on my crutches, which is a lot of energy, even for me. I was working out five days a week, and I’m still finding it really difficult. So, if you’re any less able than that, you’re screwed, basically.”

A spokesperson for NetworkRail said: “We are very sorry to hear about Meg Castro’s experience. We would like to get in touch to properly understand how we could have helped her better at Lime Street and at Euston.

“We do recommend that people who need assistance book ahead for a smoother journey most easily achieved using the passenger assistance app – however we know that many people prefer to travel independently and the more we can do as a railway to facilitate that, the better.”

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