Disabled passenger shames a passenger, who was reluctant to provide her a reserved disabled seat.
Cat Lee, from west Yorkshire, was on a Virgin East Coast train from London's Kings Cross to Skipton service Wednesday evening when she spotted the two men sitting in her seat.
The 43-year-old told the men about her disability but the pair allegedly refused and ignored her.
However one of the men in the picture last night claimed that Mrs Lee said she could not stand because she suffered from groin pain but did not claim to be disabled or appear distressed.
The man said there had been an announcement on the train stating seat reservations were no longer valid – meaning the passengers were under no obligation to give up their seats.
Cat had suffered nerve damage and crippling groin pain following an operation, which left her unable to work.
She had taken her friend for support on the three-hour and ten-minute journey but both were left standing for over an hour before Cat managed to find another seat.
Cat took a photo of the two men and posted it to Facebook with the caption: 'Meet these gentleman. Travelling from London Kings Cross on the 18:03 to Skipton.
'Charming fellows took reserved seats from Rach & I. As a disabled passenger, I stated why I needed my reserve seat. They didn't budge. I'm sure their wives and mothers would be proud of them.'
The two men allegedly spent most of the journey talking about luxury holidays in the Caribbean and Dubai before eventually getting off at Leeds.
Her friend, Kath Sansom, wrote: 'Cat said to them they were in her reserved seats and the men totally ignored her and kept staring at their phones.
'It was a very passive aggressive response; if I don't look at you and ignore you then you wont dare ask me again. Cat felt unable to challenge them.
'Sadly nowadays nobody really gets involved in other people's problems and Cat just left it. The aisles were rammed packed so they were unable to push past everybody to try to find a guard. She was in pain and needed her friend there for support.
'Cat feels angry that people think they can do as they please with no consideration for others. The seats are reserved. End of. I just hope it sends a message to others not to do this to people.'
A spokesperson for Virgin Trains said: 'Should a passenger find their seat unavailable then the Train Guard should be made aware and they would do everything they could to remove anyone or anything currently in the reserved seat.
'However, ultimately they can't force someone out so they would then, if unsuccessful, find an alternative seat for the passenger either in standard or in first.'
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