A MOTHER and father have said they are ‘disgusted’ by the way train staff treated their 15-year-old son on his way to school.

Jo and Andrew Hartley say their son, Jax, was treated unfairly by a member of Northern staff who threatened to have him thrown off the train until another passenger intervened.

However A spokesman for Northern has said the company was “satisfied” by how their staff acted on the service to Ulverston from Barrow.

Mr and Mrs Hartley say Jax boarded the 7.50am train at Roose station to get to Ulverston Victoria High School.

The train was “severely busy” which meant a number of people were standing in the aisle.

They say that before the train left Roose Station, the conductor began shouting at those in the aisle to move down to create space.

Mrs Hartley said: “The conductor pointed at Jax and shouted at him to move.

“She said the train would not set off until he moved down.

“Jax said there wasn’t any space to move down.

“The conductor then said he would be removed from the train and screamed to everyone on board that the train wouldn’t move until Jax got off.

“Two more members of staff got on the train to remove Jax.”

Mrs Hartley said at one point one of the member of staff called her son “an idiot.”

She added: “This was not a nice situation to be in and Jax should not have been treated like this.

“He was embarrassed by what happened.

“I was disgusted when I heard about it, as a mother you want to protect your child.

“You would expect some sort of safeguarding when using public transport.

“If someone hadn’t stood up for him he would have been thrown off the train.

“I was at work so what would he have done?

A pupil who was on the train and saw the incident said: “As the train was approaching Roose the guard asked a group of students to move down the carriage.

“They informed the guard they had moved down as far as they could.

“The guard started to shout at the students.

“A female passenger intervened and pointed out the students were being treated unfairly and had done all they could to help. “

A spokesman for rail operator Northern said: “We have carried out an investigation and have sent a letter to the family.

“In the letter, we have provided details of what happened and explained that we are satisfied with the way the conductor handled it.”