The teenage brother of an England footballer was allegedly thrown off a Birmingham train in a ticket row - sparked because of his autism.
The mother of Niall Redmond - brother to former Birmingham City star Nathan Redmond - claim a ticket inspector made him leave the service when he could not find his pass quickly enough.
She claims her the 17-year-old had panicked because of his autism and later missed an exam after being ejected from the train.
Now his family are calling for all train staff to have autism training as they say this is the second time it has happened.
West Midlands Railway has launched an investigation.
Mum Michelle Redmond said the ticket row happened as her youngest son travelled on the 7.34am West Midlands Railway Service from Dorridge to Kidderminster on Tuesday.
He was travelling from the family's home in Dorridge to take a GCSE exam at Stourbridge College's Kidderminster campus.
Michelle said: "The train had got to Olton and there were the inspectors wearing purple jackets going up and down the train checking tickets.
"When they asked Niall he couldn't find his pass straight away and said to the guard, hang on a bit, I can't find it, give me a bit of time.
"His autism means he panics and gets flustered easily - especially when people are standing too close to him.
"The inspector was right next to him and kept demanding the pass and Niall was getting more and more agitated.
"People were staring at him and obviously thought, oh there's a black kid trying to dodge paying the fare."
Autism friendly Birmingham
Michelle said by the time the train pulled into Rowley Regis Niall still couldn't find his travel pass so the inspector made him get off.
"He'd never been to Rowley Regis , didn't know where he was and rang me in a right state," she said.
"By now he'd found his pass so I told him to get back on the train and continue to Kidderminster and take his exam and we'd deal with it when he got home.
"But by the time he got to Kidderminster it was too late, he was told he'd missed the exam, so turned around and came back.
"He's been very depressed since this happened and has hardly spoke to me or left his room."
Michelle, aged 48, who is a counsellor, said the exact same thing had happened to Niall six months ago.
She had contacted West Midlands Railway after that incident who she said had apologised and said staff were advised never to remove unaccompanied children from trains.
"He is technically a minor and has a child's pass - but he obviously doesn't look like a child because he's 17," she said.
She added: "Niall told the inspector his age and that he had a pass, but the inspector just treated him as a trouble-making mixed race kid and made him leave the train.
"I've filled out all the complaint forms online, but what I want is for all their staff to have autism training so they know how to recognise when someone is autistic and how to treat them."
She said Niall was hoping to follow in his older brother Nathan's footsteps and was on the Kidderminster Harriers' Football Academy Diploma course.
"He's obviously not as talented as Nathan, but is really enjoying the course and was doing really well until this setback," she said.
"The college know about what happened and say there might be an opportunity for him to re-take his English GCSE in the future."
Nathan Redmond began his footballing career with Birmingham City, and currently plays for Premier League side Southampton and has also played for England.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Railway said the incident was "regrettable" and investigations were ongoing.
"We are taking the reports of an autistic child being removed from one of our services very seriously and we are investigating the incident in detail to ascertain the full facts of what happened from the staff involved," she said.
"We are committed to making our services accessible to everyone and we are constantly working on ways to improve our passenger’s experience – particularly through their interaction with our staff, as well as changes we can make around stations and on trains.
"As part of this commitment, we have a very active stakeholder equality group – which is made up of passengers who advise us on a range of issues around accessibility for all.
"We have invited the family affected to work with us to improve our provision for those with autism and to utilise their expertise to help others."
She said although the inspector was well within his rights to take action against anyone who he believed had not paid the fare, they still had a duty of care.
"We do, however, have a duty of care, particularly to vulnerable passengers," he said.
"This individual should not have been left in an unknown place or an unstaffed station where no help was available, and we are continuing to investigate this case and assess what can be done, particularly with regards staff training, to ensure an incident like this doesn’t happen again."
