London Underground Worker 'Refused To Help Mother With Buggy' In Barbican Station

Mother Furious After Tube Worker 'Refused To Help Carry Pushchair' At Station
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A mother has lashed out at "disgraceful" Transport for London staff after claiming she was refused help taking her pushchair down a flight of stairs.

Tatiana Novaes Coelho said the Barbican underground worker told her "I'm not paid for this," leaving her to struggle single-handedly with the buggy and her five-and-a-half month old daughter.

The 40-year-old, who is a pilates instructor, said she begged the man to help her again, but he continued to decline her, saying "I am not a hauler".

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Tatiana Novaes Coelho said she was refused help from a Tube worker

The mother of one, speaking to The Huffington Post UK, stressed how she was forced to wait at the top of the stairs until a woman came to help her.

"I said to him, you are telling me that you are a TfL staff member that is meant to help and facilitate commuters and you will not help me?"

"Then I went my way and stopped on top of the stairs to wait for help and another mother with a pram with a small baby and another child said she would help me because TFL staff members never did.

"She left her children at the top of the stairs and helped me down then went back up again," Coelho said.

When asked how it made her feel, the mother told HuffPost UK: "I was just so annoyed. It's bad enough that most stations don't have a lift. With a wheelchair or buggy you are usually doomed anyway but I thought the staff were there to help.

"It's a disgraceful service."

A spokesperson for London Underground, Steve Griffiths, said: "We're sorry to hear of Tatiana Novaes Coelho's experience at Barbican station and we will investigate this incident.

"Our staff are trained to help customers at all times where possible and we have modernised the Tube so that we have more staff available at stations to provide assistance."

Coelho's experience comes just a week after another expecting mother complained that no-one on the Tube would provide her a seat, despite her wearing a 'Baby-On-Board' badge.

Miri Michaeli Schwartz used a hidden camera to capture the faces of the people who didn't stand up when she was travelling underground, before uploading the footage to Facebook.

The post came accompanied with a tirade against the onlookers, with the 31-year-old writing "London tube commuters just don’t care".