A man with a brain injury claims he was accused of being too drunk to board a Merseyrail train.
Nick Williams, from West Kirby, had been for a meal with his wife Vicki in Liverpool city centre on Saturday, April 22 and decided to catch the 10.33pm train home at Central station.
Vicki went through the barriers with no issues, however Nick claims he was stopped at the barrier by a security guard. The 60-year-old then "swerved to go through the next barrier" thinking his gate was being blocked due to a problem.
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Nick said this is when it started to go "completely wrong". The company director said Vicki asked staff and security what was going on and claims she was told it was "none of her business", even when she told them she was Nick's wife.
He then claims he was then told he was seen "staggering down the station". Nick said he disputes this and if there was "any chance" of him being unsteady it was due to his brain injury.
Nick was diagnosed with a brain fistula on the right side of his brain as a result of a blood clot. He said this can sometimes "cause very fine balance issues" and is due to be operated on in May.
Speaking to the ECHO, Nick said: "It was confusing and upsetting. The police actually said when they tried to intervene that I was not one little bit drunk or even intoxicated. The bizarre thing was we had one bottle of wine between us for the whole evening and if you take that over three hours, it's nothing."
Nick said he was left feeling embarrassed by the situation. He claims at no point was he "loud, offensive or violent".
He said: "I thought hang on a sec, if I suddenly swerved then yes I was slightly off balance, but slightly off balance is not intoxicated. My wife started intervening and they basically told her it was nothing to do with her at all.
"It was of course quite embarrassing to be shouted at by the security guard and being told I was intoxicated and it's offensive because there were, should we say, some happy people in the station at the time.
"At no point was I offensive, loud or violent, I have never been violent in my entire life. It was really confusing and quite upsetting because I hadn't done anything wrong."
Nick said he and Vicki tried to get the police to intervene but claims they were told officers could not get involved and told them to go another station. Nick said the couple then had to rush to Lime Street station to catch another train.
He said: "For me, I can't drink that much because of the brain fistula, that would not be very healthy for me. Running to Lime Street train station to get the train is not exactly the healthiest thing for me. Lime Street were great and really helpful."
Nick said he wanted to share his experience to raise awareness. He said: "I am actually very concerned that the power these staff appear to have where you can be found guilty with no evidence offered at all and no right to recourse.
"What happens to other innocent people, some of which may have had a few drinks but are not abusive for example, how for example do they get home? What happens to a lone female? What happens if somebody cannot afford any other means to travel home?"
He added: "You do take the train because you don't want to drink and drive. I completely accept if someone is a danger to themselves or other passengers then of course you have to stop people like that going on the train, that's not in dispute.
"But someone who has had a couple of drinks because they don't want to drive, I question that."
Nick has put in a formal complaint to Merseyrail and said he has requested the CCTV and bodycam footage of the interaction.
Greg Suligowski, head of customer strategy at Merseyrail, said: “Merseyrail operate a long-established Travel Safe policy that aims to ensure that all passengers can travel safely. As part of this policy our staff have the right to refuse travel to any passenger they reasonably believe may be at risk whilst travelling on our network.
“Our staff are also trained to identify and support disabled people as part of the policy. Staff use this training and their judgement based on what they can see and hear in the moment to make a decision. This is often a very difficult decision to make.
“Whilst we can’t discuss specific cases, all complaints made about refusals of travel are thoroughly investigated and a detailed response provided to the person making the complaint.”
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