Blundering station staff left a distressed disabled pensioner stranded after failing to help her off a train.

The wheelchair user, who was travelling on the last night-service from Waterloo to Shepperton, asked for help to alight at Kingston station but no assistance came.

The pensioner was forced to stay on the train until it terminated, making her miss the last bus home.

The disabled passenger managed to drive her mobility scooter back home in the dark where she eventually arrived in the early hours of Thursday, February 9.

South West Trains has since apologised for the mistake and said an investigation would be carried out.

But chief executive officer at Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL) Theo Harris was appalled by the incident.

She said: “I think she was probably quite distressed at the time. She was exposed to danger, which I think could have been avoided.”

Ms Harris said transport was a major concern for disabled people and train staff should learn to apply disability training to their roles.

She said: “I think they need to be made more aware of disabled people’s issues but also they need to be made aware of the impact of their actions.”

However, the news came as a shock to Maureen Wing, an outreach support worker at KCIL, who said her own experiences had only ever been positive.

A South West Trains spokesman said: “We do have a clear process in place for assisting disabled passengers through our assisted travel service and we apologise that we did not deliver this on this occasion.

“We have contacted the passenger directly to convey our personal apologies to her and a member of our management team will soon be meeting her to reassure her about her future travel arrangements.”