The eleven-time gold winner in wheelchair racing missed her train and arrived at the station in Leeds at after 10 p.m. on Wednesday to begin her journey to Paris for the Paralympic Games, which get underway in the French city.
She bemoaned the lack of help in a string of tweets on social media platform X, writing: “@LNER [London North Eastern Railway] who do I need to call to get off this train!!!” It arrived at KGX ten minutes ago!!!”
Baroness Thompson said to News on Wednesday that emails expressing “‘how dare'” were among the “backlash” she has subsequently received.
I ought to be at home. I shouldn’t risk going anywhere alone. It’s amusing to observe some of the attitudes that some people still hold regarding people with disabilities. “And how dare I miss a train.”
“To the ableist people who have said I should stay at home, not work, not expect to travel on a bank holiday, not travel on my own,” she replied on X on Tuesday. Not happening, huh.”
She claimed that in addition to the abuse, “many people have emailed me to say they’ve had problems across the whole train network.”
“There is no response to the complaints they are making,” she continued. They’re being ignored. LNER typically does far better than it.
