Grey-Thompson told BBC Radio 4 she had initially booked assistance to help her off the 19:15 train from Leeds, but missed it and instead travelled on the 19:45. After waiting for 20 minutes, no staff arrived to assist her so she had to try to disembark herself.

"There was no one there to meet me and I waited five minutes before putting anything on social media because you're meant to leave five minutes. After 16 minutes of waiting at King's Cross, there was no one in sight. There were a couple of cleaners but they're not insured or able to help me off. So I decided that I would crawl off the train. I'm going to Paris later today, I've got a few bags. I chucked them on the platform, I had to get out of my chair, sit on the floor by the door which is not pleasant and then crawl off,” Grey-Thompson recounted her ordeal to BBC 4. 

This is not the first time the Paralympian has encountered accessibility problems on trains. Similarly in 2012, she had to pull herself off an East Coast train when no one came to help her and was left stranded at King’s Cross station at midnight.

"Legally I am allowed to turn up and ask to get on a train. We were meant to have level boarding in the UK on 1 January 2020 under the Disability and Discrimination Act but government has kicked the can down the road. I can just about get off the train if I need to, but there are loads of people that can’t. I can't really crawl but sit on the floor and drag my legs. There was no one around and I was very angry last night,” the disability activist said. 

Grey-Thompson was born with spina bifida and competed in wheelchair racing for Team GB for 16 years, winning 16 Paralympic medals. She is now a member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom and tackles issues facing disabled people including access problems in the transport system.

LNER’s managing director David Horne offered his “sincere apologies” on Tuesday morning following the incident. 

"My sincere apologies for this Tanni. Something has clearly gone wrong here and we’ve let you down. We’ll investigate what went wrong and share the details," Horne said.