A DISABLED woman was forced to take a 45-minute detour after she discovered the train station lift was out of order.

Fiona Anderson, from Heaton, arrived at Bolton train station on Monday morning to catch a train to Manchester Piccadilly, but was faced with a broken lift which meant she could not get to the right platform.

Ms Anderson, aged 30, says she had no other option but to go to the platform for trains in the opposite direction, travel to a different station and change platforms there.

Ms Anderson, a Muscular Dystrophy UK campaigner, said: “Being a wheelchair user, I always set off around half an hour earlier, anticipating transport problems, but when I arrived at the station, the lift to get down to the Manchester platform was out of order.

“I asked my partner, do we turn around and go home now because we can’t go direct to Piccadilly?”

Ms Anderson had booked ramp assistance at Piccadilly for her planned arrival time. Ms Anderson says she was unable to rebook ramps at such short notice for an alternative route and risked not being able to get on and off trains elsewhere.

She added: “It makes all the bookings I had arranged for ramps useless, but I didn’t want to miss seeing my friend in Manchester because they had come such a long way from London.”

Ms Anderson took a chance and went in the opposite direction to Horwich Parkway, hoping there would be staff on hand to help her change platforms there.

She said: “There are so few staff there, that was another anxiety. We got to Horwich Parkway and the platform was deserted. We went to the service desk to get a ramp for the next train and there was only one lady working the desk and assisting with the ramps.

“I arrived in Manchester 45 minutes later than I had planned. It’s a domino effect — one thing goes wrong and your ramp bookings are out.”

Ms Anderson said there was no warning that the lift was broken, which would have helped her plan accordingly.

She added: “I don’t understand why we have got all of these train apps and out of all of the annoucements, they don’t have an alert system that lifts are down.

“If they can do it for cancelled trains, they can do it for lifts.”

Bolton train station is operated by Northern Rail.

A spokesman for Northern said: “Unfortunately mechanical problems at Bolton station have resulted in some lifts being out of order during the past few days. We are working to rectify the problem as soon as possible and apologise to any customers whose journeys are affected.

“Northern staff will always seek to provide as much assistance as possible, suggesting other routes or providing alternative means, such as taxis, for onward travel if rail travel is not possible.”