A woman using a motorised wheelchair was trapped on a Kingston bus for an hour after an electric ramp failed.

Katie Mason, 24, decided to catch an early bus from her care home in Claygate to Kingston College, where she is an access to nursing student.

But she ended up at Cromwell Road bus station, trying to find somewhere to park the bus where a replacement ramp - borrowed from Kingston train station - would allow her to alight.

She said: "It's quite a frequent event on the K3. Often a ramp will not come out and it causes a problem, holding up the bus.

"People get impatient and I get embarrassed.

"I know I'm not the only person who experiences it. It's a big problem that needs to be highlighted."

Miss Mason, who had osteoporosis diagnosed in 2010, said that bus drivers sometimes pass right by her, or if they do stop, expect her to wait for the next bus if prams are taking up space inside.

The former university student, who has returned to education and now has regained some limited mobility, added: "They didn't really care that I had to get back to my stop.

"The whole experience has left me questioning whether to use the bus again.

"I think there are many solutions, and if they actually asked the people who used the services how to solve them they might actually work.

"If they had a smaller ramp at the bus station and it happened again they would at least have a way of getting people off.

"You can't rely on the train station."

Ken Davidson, head of Transport for London’s bus operations, said: "We would like to offer our sincere apologies to the passenger who was unable to alight from a K3 bus at her chosen stop.

"Every bus in the capital’s fleet is low floor and wheelchair accessible, with the wheelchair ramps checked every day before each bus enters service.

"This means that incidents of this nature, while highly regrettable, are thankfully very rare.

"We will ask the operator of route K3, Abellio, to investigate this incident as a matter of urgency."