A DISABLED pensioner has received compensation for her rail nightmare four months after she was forced to endure a "most distressing journey".

Kathleen Gent, 70, had to stand for more than an hour with her 71-year-old companion on a Virgin service from Reading to York - and was offered just £7 back at the time.

And now Virgin have sent her another £13 towards the £23.10 she spent on the original journey.

The Woodthorpe pensioner wrote to Virgin after her journey in September last year and was offered the £7 a couple of weeks later.

But Kathleen, who has vowed never to travel on Virgin again, returned the letter stating that the compensation was unacceptable.

"It was a terrible journey," she told the Evening Press.

"There were no problems on the way down to Reading, but it wasn't very good on the way back.

"There were no hot drinks on the train and then at Birmingham we were told to get off the train.

"We then had to get on a full train an hour later and had to stand all the way back to York. It was very distressing." She said that the train was so crowded nobody could get to the toilets.

Kathleen, who was visiting her son, said: "I will not be travelling on Virgin again. I don't travel very much by train and with all that has happened recently I don't think I will again.

"It is dreadful what people are having to go through."

She added that travel vouchers were not much good to her as she was not prepared to risk travelling on Virgin services again.

A spokesman for Virgin said: "We have sent her a letter dated January 17 offering her another £13 compensation.

"She received the standard compensation package laid down in our passenger charter which is a percentage of the cost of travel."

He added that the company had suffered a lot of disruption in recent months with speed restrictions and severe weather affecting services. He added that the reply may have been caught up in "the backlog".

Updated: 10:13 Saturday, January 20, 2001