Former Hollyoaks star Davinia Taylor has launched a furious attack on train staff at London's Euston station, accusing them of 'nasty and inhuman' behaviour after she was denied boarding a train to Birmingham despite arriving three minutes before its scheduled departure.
Taylor's Account of the Incident
In a since-deleted Instagram video, the 48-year-old actor and wellness guru claimed she 'sprinted' through the station with large suitcases and was told by staff she needed to have arrived earlier. According to Taylor, the train was still at the platform and the gates had not yet been locked. She said workers were 'sniggering' at her after refusing to allow her to board.
'I f*****g hate little s***houses like this,' Taylor said in the video. 'I was there, the train was there, I was three minutes, I sprinted through Euston. I said, "Look I'm a woman on her own. I bought the ticket. They'd not even locked the gates." He said, "Sorry love, you can't go, you've gotta be longer before."'
Taylor added: 'As I said to him, "Imagine if that was your mum,"' before imitating the worker shrugging their shoulders.
Staff Response and Platform Policy
The mother-of-four continued: 'That's the f*****g idiots you're dealing with. Empty it was, empty. So now I've gotta buy a new ticket. I've been working my a**e off, and these little nasty, nasty little f*****g clipboards. I said, "Do you know what? You're not even human." The platform was empty. Empty, and they both sniggered, sniggered, what the f**k is wrong with people, when they've got a f*****g uniform on. I hope their mothers are embarrassed. Horrible, horrible brats.'
The video featured text that said: 'Clipboard computer says no, jobsworth, not my problem. K**bheads. Why are SOME of these people in the travel business set on default to be unhelpful? Btw I travel Avanti loads and have met absolute angels... but these two. Yuk.'
According to the Avanti West Coast website, platforms at London Euston close two minutes before the train departs. Taylor stated the train was scheduled to leave at 16:29 and she was at the top of the train at 16:25 with her QR code ready. By the time staff told her there was nothing they could do, it was 16:26.
Taylor's Instagram Post and Public Reaction
Taylor captioned the post: 'My lovely train manager on the next train told me to report them and this sort of attitude and behaviour has to stop. As a woman travelling alone - my point being I had massive cases from work and they could see me struggling and just smirked - it's all very passive aggressive behaviour that some of them seems to relish in. I was there in time they just blocked me. Anyone else been faced with the unhelpful default type person when you're travelling??'
While many fans sympathised with her story, one user commented: '3 minutes what? Late? Late is late, the entitlement and support for it in the comments is insaaane.' Taylor replied explaining the timeline and that she had asked the worker to radio the conductor, which was refused, and then he sniggered.
Background on Davinia Taylor
In recent years, Taylor has transformed from a regular in noughties tabloids—known for partying with Kate Moss and Sadie Frost, and famously buying Noel Gallagher's Supernova Heights house in 2005—into a 'biohacking' wellness guru. The former alcoholic told The Standard she has gone teetotal, takes dawn ice baths, runs in Hyde Park, and adopts daily biohacking practices to improve her health.
'It's like a line of cocaine,' she said of the high she now chases after years battling alcoholism and overeating. Her million-plus Instagram followers receive daily updates on her workouts, wellness practices (including psychedelics and South American healing rituals), and biohacking tips.
'There's so much doom and gloom around [health], [people saying] "this is out of your control, that is out of your control" – it's bloody NOT out of your control,' she said. 'There are so many little hacks you can do just to make yourself feel mentally better. We can hack into our mental health so that we wake up every morning going: "Yeah. Good."'
The Standard has contacted a representative for Avanti West Coast for comment.
