Woman occupying booked train seat refuses to move saying passenger is 'younger'

03 October 2023 , 10:06

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The incident happened on a train from Edinburgh to London (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

A couple have told how a woman refused to move from a pre-booked seat on a busy train claiming they were "younger" and "fitter" than her.

Shrija Bajpai, 33, and her husband, Ujjwal Singh, 34, were on holiday in the UK from the United States, and were travelling from Edinburgh to London where they were flying home from, when the incident happened on a LNER service.

They feel they have been let down by LNER after they allegedly failed to intervene when a woman took a seat they had paid for on the busy train. When the couple politely asked the woman to move, they were told that they should give up their seat because they are "younger" and "fitter" than she is.

The woman, when challenged, allegedly also goaded the pair into contacting LNER and refused to move citing that the couple should show her some "respect." The altercation took place between the couple and the lady on the 5.30pm Edinburgh to London LNER service on September 30.

"My husband and I were travelling back to London from Edinburgh on September 30 at 5.30pm on LNER," said Shrija, reported EdinburghLive. "We saw two individuals identified on the video sitting on our reserved seats K81, L82, we requested them to move but they declined.

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"We tried finding the train staff and I also tweeted LNER while this was happening. But no one came to check the tickets and they remained in our seat until their station came. I am a Canadian citizen and my husband is an Indian citizen, we both live in USA.

"We were on vacation in the UK and we were heading back to London to catch our flight back to the USA when this incident happened. We felt frustrated and disappointed, we expected better customer service but it was not even close to average.

"I want to acknowledge that other passengers also supported us. As a tourist, when something like this happens we take back an impression and unfortunately after this incident I asked all my family and friends to beware. I just hope LNER will take this matter seriously, so no one else has to go through this."

An LNER spokesperson told The Mirror: “ Due to a number of incidents across the rail network on 29 September 2023 our services were busier than usual. We would always advise customers to speak to our onboard teams should they have any concerns or queries while travelling with us. Our onboard crew were not aware of an incident on this service, however we will look into this further and will be making contact with customer.”

Jacob Farr