A TRAIN company has apologised to a disabled woman who struggles to board trains from Bolton to Manchester.

Christina Rhoney, aged 20, appeared in The Bolton News earlier this week saying she feels she is treated like a "second class citizen" by train operators and believes there should be more carriages and more disabled spaces to cope with the demand.

The 20-year-old social care student, from Farnworth, uses First Transpennine Express and Northern Rail trains regularly from Bolton to Manchester Deansgate, where she attends Manchester Metropolitan University.

She has Marfan's Syndrome and Hypermobility Syndrome, which affects her legs and hips, meaning she cannot normally walk for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Kathryn O'Brien, customer service director at First TransPennine Express, has also offered to meet with Miss Rhoney to discuss the issue further.

She said: "While we encourage customers who require extra assistance to book this in advance of their journey, I am always disappointed to hear of any negative experiences on our services and would like to extend a personal apology to Christina.

"Offering a high standard of customer service is something we take very seriously, and onboard and station teams across our network are currently going through an enhanced programme of customer service training to ensure we deliver a consistently exceptional service for every customer, every time.

"Any feedback about our service is always appreciated, and I would welcome the opportunity to meet Christina to talk about what further initiatives can potentially be introduced to enhance the journey experience for our customers."

Miss Rhoney, who last week featured in Channel 4's Dispatches programme 'Trains: Are You Paying too Much?' — says there should be more carriages and more disabled spaces to cope with the demand.

She said: "Nothing has changed really in the last 18 months, and the reduction in service because of the work on the Farnworth tunnel has made it even more difficult, because if I cannot board a train I have to wait an hour until the next one, which makes me late for uni.

"People don't seem to care and never make an effort to move to let me on or off, and some staff members are often not very helpful — I often get fobbed off and treated like a second class citizen.

"There have even been times when there's no one to put out the ramp any I'm left onboard until Horwich and have to come back to Bolton again. It's ridiculous."