Yes apologies you're correct of course - it will have been Network Rail involved here too.
Of course, back in the day the driver would have stopped with the front part on the platform to let the wheelchair off and then drawn forward to the normal stopping point. What are the odds that this is all too difficult on the modern railway as the "computer says no".
Drive at and try.
At morning or evening peak, yes, it's terrible. The rest of the time, not really. Sometimes you'd be better off going up the A46, along the M4 and back down the M32 than the direct route.
Yes, this. Someone who knows there has been an error but is helped into a specially adapted taxi at the next stop, has an apology and is whisked away to their proper stop is different from this. A friend of mine had a dreadful trip from London to Newcastle. No ones fault but he remembers the effort made to get him home (finding a set and crew that could go up the Durham Coast) rather than the modest cock up that delayed his train until the main line was closed for engineering. The reputational damage is such that someone very senior should be on the phone for the taxi, the extra stop, the delay - whatever is needed.
It's not acceptable. Kudos to GWR for accepting responsibility though. What's not stated is if it was a double IET or singular. Surely Bath Spa can accommodate 5 carriages? Anyway, short platforms are relatively rare and I can see how an oversight would occur. Perhaps this could be remedied with a notice to remind assistance staff of short platforms on internal systems. All customers deserve dignity and having to crawl to get off the train is not acceptable. I do think that there are improvements to be made with Passenger Assistance. There is a man called Doug Paulley who highlights assistance failures on his YouTube channel. Often it's caused by a break down in communication. Only on Sunday, I helped an infirm lady off a train when assistance didn't show.
Caerphilly wheelchair user 'had to crawl' off GWR train from London
Phoebe's mum says watching the incident was "traumatic" and left her feeling "helpless".www.bbc.co.uk
A wheelchair user was left in tears as she crawled on her "hands and knees" through a train after being told a ramp could not be used to help her off.
Phoebe Tesoriere, 24, who lived in Caerphilly at the time, was on a Great Western Railway (GWR) train from London Paddington to Bath Spa when it happened.
Her family spoke to the assistance desk and were taken to the only designated wheelchair space on the train. Phoebe said she was assured a ramp and assistance would be waiting, but was told she was in a carriage beyond the platform and could not get off.
GWR said it was "really sorry" and admitted "we let her down, both when we helped her board and at several points during her journey".
Former Cardiff University student Phoebe, who has hereditary spastic paraplegia, external which causes weakness and stiffness in the leg muscles, said: "My mum specifically asked if a ramp and assistance would be waiting at Bath Spa. We were assured it would be."
While on the train, staff checked which station she would be getting off at numerous times during the incident in December 2025, she added.
Despite this, Phoebe was not told the carriage she was directed to would stop beyond the platform, leaving her unable to use a ramp to get off.
And GWR haven't even got their act together to pay the agreed compensation
The vast majority of services between Paddington and Bath Spa are formed of 9 carriage trains, so single units, but still too long for Bath's Bristol-bound platform.
As a human being l'm sad to say that l find you attacking her family rather than the absolute heartless incompetence displayed by GWR (the utter moron who suggested that she pay more for an additional ticket should be unemployed now) incomprehensible and disgraceful. It's sadly all too symptomatic of rather too much of the rail industry and it's apologists.
My impression is that Phoebe crawled off the train whilst at Bath Spa and did not travel to Bristol. I have a feeling that the impression that they would have to pay for the journey back from Bristol to Bath influenced that decision making.
Steady on there.
I apologise if my words sound harsh but l saw some of the treatment my blind late father received.
That would certainly explain why GWR haven't paid anything to her.
I think many on here, who are not currently in the rail industry, try to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Bath is on a reasonably sharp curve, so I wonder if ‘moving backwards’ isn’t an acceptable method of work there, particularly if coaches are off the end of the platform too.
Glad someone else said it. It's totally how it came across.
Yes, it is me, the well known rail industry apologist (!) with all the posts in this thread criticising GWR's incompetence and their extended time in closing out the investigation. I've even criticised the rolling stock order. What else would you like?
No, the complainant is - quife rightly - being compensated with money for their experience. It's not a refund of fares.
The key issue as @bramling has identified is staff quality and training. They're also spread far too thinly and a lot of passenger assist stuff is attention to detail. It used to be laborious to book this (I've worked the phone lines doing it!) and there are so many quirks which have yet to be designed out of the network there is significant risk of a failing like the one GWR displayed here. This happens all the time, far too frequently, and it's a grim reflection of our diminishing capacity as a civilisation.
Bristol and the family is a red herring and a complete distraction from the real issue though, which is a passenger was not able to alight in a dignified manner at Bath Spa. If anybody should have been diverting to Bristol by car, it should have been a taxi booked and paid for by GWR.
They didn't want to be in Bristol. If it was me on duty I'd have taxied them to Caerphilly, but they'd have had to get to Bristol for that and stayed on the train. Obviously this has been a total mess and it is GWR's fault it was a mess!
Of course not.
You will not find a stronger advocate than me. I'm on all of these threads and I used to see all the cock ups happen every day and have to resolve them when I worked in the industry. Very little has changed since my time (10 years ago). But in fairness we aren't effecting any change here, it's just a discussion board and we can say what we like and how we feel.
To me the obvious question is why not train to Bristol Parkway or all the way through to Newport or Caerphilly? Perhaps they were doing things in Bath as a family first.
