Kelsey Trevett had a ‘whole weekend of drama after drama after drama’ (Picture: Kelsey Trevett)
A Pride of Britain award winner was left ‘isolated’ and scared at a London station when night-time travel assistance failed to turn up twice.
Kelsey Trevett, 23, who is blind, had to navigate unfamiliar Willesden Junction and Dalston Kingsland with only a walking stick after helpers were missing at 11pm at night.
Kelsey who won Child of Courage title after losing their sight to cancer as a child, was let down after being promised assistance through TfL’s ‘turn-up-and-go’ service last weekend.
Kelsey told Metro: ‘It was scary. I was isolated and quite vulnerable. It was also exasperating.
Kelsey had to navigate without support to get the last train of the evening (Picture: Kelsey Trevett)
‘Rule no. 1 of disabled passenger safety is surely to prevent us being stranded at unfamiliar stations, late at night, when assistance has been requested and confirmed.’
The award winner was travelling via Willesden Junction to Dalston Kingsland station to meet friends on January 11 in the belief that they would be met by attendants on the journey.
Kelsey had used Transport for London’s (TFL) ‘turn-up-and-go’ system, which entitles passengers to speak to railway staff when they arrive at a station and get on a train when it is confirmed assistance will provided on the other end.
However after getting off the train at Willesden Junction no one was there to help them change platforms.
Kelsey had to rely on crowd following, a cane and luck to navigate two levels and find the Overground train to Dalston Kingsland.
The assistants were not to be found at Willesden Junction (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Because they had got on the second train alone, assistance at Dalston Kingsland. which Trevett had never been to before, also did not pitch up.
‘It’s quite disorientating. It’s the things you probably wouldn’t consider necessarily unless you have been in that situation,’ Kelsey said.
‘I don’t even know which end of the platform is the exit. Is it stairs or escalators?
‘If I’m asking for assistance, it’s because I really do need it, because it’s late and it’s dark and I feel a little bit vulnerable.’
The same then happened all over again as Kelsey travelled home at 11pm at night.
Agreed assistance at Willesden Junction were absent when they arrived, leaving them to desperately find the correct platform before the last train of the night home.
Kelsey was also left to find their way out of a completely unknown station, Dalston Kingsland (Picture: Ella Millward)
Kelsey, who called the experience ‘appalling’, added: ‘Honestly it is not the first time, it happens a lot. It’s frustrating. It’s dark.
‘I don’t want to spend my 11:00 PM on Saturday night trying to figure out a station I’m not very comfortable with, when we are not far off the last train of the night home.’
Kelsey also complained that prior to travelling that evening, they attempted to call TfL about accessibility on the night, in hopes of speaking to one of TfL’s ‘accessibility champions’.
They were unable to get through to a human to ask about accessibility on their journey.
Kelsey said in their X post: ‘Accessibility champions really don’t count if I can’t get through to speak to them.’
Willesden Junction is a complex station with multiple levels (Picture: Getty Images)
The very next day, the 23-year-old’s ‘successful’ experience of getting accessibility help was ruined at Euston station.
Kelsey was met by an attendant and asked to be left at a particular Euston station exit, because they felt comfortable making their own way to the Overground from there using a shortcut.
Instead, this request was repeatedly refused and Kelsey was taken to a member National Rail staff to be taken to the connection.
Kelsey labelled this experience ‘a masterclass in disempowering disabled people. It’s patronising. it’s ablest, and it’s a waste of everyone’s time.’
‘It’s not these people’s individual fault. It is their training.
Kelsey’s other ‘patronising’ experience took place at Euston (Picture: Network Rail/PA Wire)
‘It was a failure to understany my own needs and competences. To undermine my own abilities was quite disempowering and patronising.
‘I was frustrated, really frustrated. It was another example of certain stereotypes: “Oh this person is disabled, they clearly cannot navigate their way through parts of stations. We are going to get them help whether we want them or not.”‘
Kelsey called their weekend ‘a whole weekend of drama after drama after drama’.
They said of TfL’s record with accessibility: ‘I have lost count of the number of good experiences. That is wonderful and I am glad that is the position we are in.
‘What matters is it takes one or two experiences to go really badly wrong to knock someone’s confidence. If it makes you feel particularly vulnerable, that is what you will remember.
‘The proximity of those three events, three times in 24 hours, has knocked my confidence.
‘The important thing is raising awareness. It is looking at how can we create a system, and a training process that provides disabled people with unshakeable confidence that they will be able to travel with safety and dignity.’
Metro has contacted TfL for comment.
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