Disabled woman furious after being refused entry to train home because she didn't have permit

In February, train operator Northern re-launched and expanded a free permit scheme aimed at making train travel easier with a mobility scooter or wheelchair.

Thanks to this Northern mobility scooter permit scheme, people can now travel to and from more than 160 stations, on 281 routes on the train operator’s network, using their scooter or wheelchair.

The original permit, including 140 stations, was first launched in 2020.

However, mobility scooter user Julie Darlington, 61, of Fleetwood, had not heard of the permit and says, as a mobility scooter user, she had never encountered any problems travelling on Northern trains without one – until last week.

In what she calls an upsetting incident, the disabled grandmother says she was refused permission to board a homeward-bound train with her scooter in Newcastle and told the permit would take two weeks to arrive.

She says that not everyone is aware of the scheme and fears other disabled people, including elderly vulnerable folk, will be refused permission to board, as she was.

The incident occurred last Friday, when Julie, who suffers from a degenerative bone condition in her ankles which means she can’t walk, was trying to use her return ticket to get back to Blackpool via Carlisle and Preston.

Julie said: "This made me feel discriminated against for being disabled.

“Apparently this latest scheme by Northern Trains has been in effect for months but I didn’t know about it and I'm sure I’m not the only one.

"There will be a lot of disabled people like me who will be caught out by it.

" I have travelled regularly on Northern trains, to Liverpool and Manchester in the last few months, without any issues – my scooter is really small an doesn’t take a lot of space.

"I was really upset when I was told I couldn’t get on the train and it was handled really insensitively.

"They said I needed this permit, but I couldn’t buy it at the station, I had to fill in an online form and it would take two weeks!

"I asked them how I was supposed to get home, hundreds of miles away.

"Basically they wouldn’t let me on the train, even though I’d travelled over on a Northern train without any issues, and had already bought my return ticket.

"My brother lives in Newcastle but he works and was in no position to drive me all the way home to Fleetwood.”

Julie said staff at Newcastle eventually relented after she remonstrated with them and they arranged for her to get back to Carlisle by taxi, from where she completed her journey home with another rail firm.

Although the permit scheme has been welcomed by disabled passengers, Julie added: “If I hadn’t kicked up a fuss I don’t now what would have happened.”

Maxine Myers, accessibility improvement manager at Northern, said of the permit scheme: “We are committed to giving people with additional mobility needs the confidence to travel by rail. We want to support our customers whenever they need it.

“The mobility scooter scheme is an example of this commitment and we’ll be looking to deliver improved accessibility across our network as we roll out similar improvements at other stations in the future.”

Matt Wilson, travel integration and accessibility manager, said: “I am sorry for this passenger’s experience on our services.

"For the safety of all passengers, anyone travelling on a mobility scooter must first obtain a permit from Northern to ensure the model they use meets certain size and manoeuvrability specifications.

“We are working hard to promote the scheme and more information can be find on the Northern website.”