Wheelchair user prevented from boarding Eurostar over ramp

A disability activist said she was prevented from boarding a Eurostar service to London because she had not booked a ramp – even though her ticket was for a wheelchair space.

Sam Jennings, 46, who uses an electric wheelchair, said staff at Gare du Nord station in Paris had “watched me queue to check in, then turned me round when I got to the front and sent me away to the office” to book a ramp.

After she tweeted Eurostar on X on Sunday, a ramp was eventually provided, but she said the incident had been “infuriating” and had added to a stressful trip to the Paralympics.

Eurostar has apologised and said Ms Jenning’s ramp booking had been missed when information had been shared between systems.

Ms Jennings, from Streatham in south London, said she had even checked with staff staff earlier that day whether she needed to do anything other than book her ticket, but had been told she did not need to do anything.

She told BBC London she had been asked to present papers showing she needed a ramp despite being in her wheelchair, adding: “It seemed like a petty power play.”

In a conversation with Eurostar on X, she posted: “Why do we have to have an additional layer or task to travel with you to book a ramp? It should be automatically booked.”

Ms Jennings previously said she had experienced more than 30 “zero access fails” recently, ranging “from being left on trains, to people refusing to help me with the ramp”.

In February 2023, she was prevented from handing in a campaigning letter to 10 Downing Street because a suitable ramp was not provided for her to reach the front door.

Ms Jennings explained there had been posters on Eurostar trains claiming the company was “proudly supporting” Paralympics teams. The Paralympic Games were held in Paris this month.

She claimed Eurostar “made a big song and dance” while still putting up an “extra barrier” for wheelchair users.

“They’re celebrating the achievements of disabled people in sport but for disabled fans… the reality is indifference,” she said.

She continued that by the time she got home she had been “apoplectic with rage”, and had been “crying all night” because of her experience.

Ms Jennings said her problems using the Eurostar had only added to her feeling she had been “seen as a nuisance” while travelling around Paris for the Paralympics, even though when she had been at the events she felt she had been “part of something much bigger”.

She said disabled people had “missed Paralympic events we had tickets for because the city was inaccessible and astonishingly they had an accessible vehicle shuttle for disabled people, but you had to book it 48 hours in advance”.

“I arrived in Paris on Friday afternoon so wasn’t allowed to get accessible transport for the events I had tickets for,” she said, arguing she had been “totally screwed over on Sunday, as they closed the roads in the centre for the marathon and wheelchair users can’t use the Metro”.

A Eurostar spokesperson said: “We apologise for this experience and understand the anxiety this must have caused the passenger while they waited for the issue to be resolved.

“After further investigation, we’ve discovered due to human error, the passenger’s ramp booking was missed when the information was shared between systems.

“Rest assured that when a passenger books a wheelchair space on our London routes, the ramp is automatically reserved.

“On this occasion, we acknowledge this is an error on our part. We are improving our systems and tools is a key focus for us, and work has already begun to address this.”

Additional reporting by Chelsea Coates