I still think about the experience that I had at Witton Lane railway station near Birmingham in September following England’s FIFA World Cup qualifier against Andorra at Villa Park which is the home of Aston Villa.
After leaving the stadium a few minutes before the end of match to make my way back to the station, I was met with nothing but chaos as I approached the entrance to the station and came face to face with hundreds if not thousands of other supporters who had the same goal as me (pardon the pun)
Writing in a post on September 6th 2025 I recalled a feeling of claustrophobia as I was faced with a sea of ankles in front of me, there was also an occasion where a fellow supporter nearly fell into me after attempting to climb over a metal railing next to where I was sitting in the queue.
In the week that followed the match I met with some of the officials from West Midlands Railway (WMR) to discuss the experience that I had that evening in the hope that they would learn from it, but boy was I wrong.
During the meeting some of which took place on board a train whilst travelling to the railway station in Sutton Coldfield I was told that no other wheelchair users had experienced issues after the match at the station.
This was actually incorrect and shouldn’t have been said as I have spoken to some disabled supporters at the station in the months since that night who also experienced issues but did not know how to highlight them with the operator.
All I wanted was to be listened to in the meeting with the operator about my experience, but I wasn’t and that’s something which really hurts, just last week I had a conversation with WMR around how situations like these can be avoided when EURO 2028 visits Villa Park on several occasions in just a few years time.
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Cam
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