A woman barred from boarding her train because her luggage contained two bottles of liqueur was told: “Drink it now and we'll let you on”.

Eleanor Scott, 52, who was returning from a week's holiday in Italy, said Northern Rail staff made the demand as they enforced a “booze free” train regime on the service between Workington and Carlisle.

The crackdown is the firm's response to repeated incidents of drink-fuelled antisocial behaviour on weekend trains from Carlisle to Newcastle and west Cumbria.

But mum-of-two Eleanor, a social care worker, said train safety officers who have been given the job of enforcing the ban have taken the rule to a ridiculous extreme.

She has also questioned the firm's legal right to search passengers and seize alcohol.

She described returning from a week of hiking on Italy's Amalfi coast and arrived in Carlisle at 6.15pm on Saturday June 17, totally sober, and carrying her luggage – a rucksack and a small suitcase.

Stored in the suitcase were two three inch high, 50mls bottles of Limocello liqueur, each costing 3 Euro. They were presents for relatives.

But when she was about to board the train a male train safety officer told her that she and other passengers would be searched as part of the ongoing effort to make sure nobody takes alcohol on to the train.

“If you're going to be searched by the police, they have to have a suspicion that you're involved in some sort of criminal activity,” said Eleanor, who told the man she refused to be searched.

She freely told him about the liqueur bottles in her luggage and was then told she would not be allowed on the train if wanted to keep them.

Eleanor said: “I offered to let one of the train staff keep the two bottles during my journey and then return them to me when I got off in Workington. He said they couldn't do that because it was a dry train.

“That was when he called over two female colleagues.

“One of them suggested I take the bottles out of my suitcase, drink them, and then I'd be allowed on the train. I said: 'You've got to be joking.'”

Left with no alternative, and not wanting to drink before her journey, Eleanor opened her suitcase on the platform, retrieved the two bottles, and handed them over.

She was told she could get them back if she returned to the Carlisle station at another time – entailing a round trip of around 30 miles.

“The whole thing was absolutely ridiculous,” said Eleanor, from Ashfield Gardens, Workington

“These people weren't police officers and the British Transport Police have told me they had nothing to do with it. I've complained and they've now told me that their policy is to dispose of the alcohol they take.

“What right have they to do that?

“At the time, I said to them that I didn't know we were living in Russia! I feel that my human rights have been abused. They've told me that they can not guarantee they won't do this to other people on their trains.

“I had not been drinking at all during my journey from Italy; and I had no intention of drinking the liqueurs on the train.

"They were presents - for my son, and one for my daughter's partner.

“They may have had issues with alcohol on trains but they're penalising people before they even get on their trains.”

A customer complaints worker later apologised to Eleanor, telling her: “ As an apology for any distress this may have caused, I would like to send you two Northern all day vouchers.”

A Northern spokesman said: “We operate a dry trains policy between Carlisle and Whitehaven which means no alcohol is permitted on any Northern services in the area.

“This policy has been put in place in response to concerns from our customers about anti-social behaviour and disorder.

"We work closely with British Transport Police to determine the most effective methods to deter such behaviour and a dry trains policy was thought to be the most effective deterrent to problematic behaviour on the Carlisle to Whitehaven route

“We have seen a reduction in anti-social behaviour on the line and continue to monitor both the effectiveness of the dry trains policy and the opinions of our customers.”

The spokesman added: “In accordance with the restrictions in place between Carlisle and Whitehaven, our Travel Safe Officers recently requested a customer at Carlisle to leave two bottles of alcohol at the station before allowing her to travel.

“It is entirely understandable that the customer was frustrated at having to leave the alcohol behind, but the restrictions have been implemented to benefit our customers and we cannot make exceptions in the relation to the ban of alcohol.”

Carlisle-based Craig Johnston, from the RMT rail workers union, supported the rail safety officers, saying they were simply enforcing the “dry train” rule.

He added: “We should be enforcing the by law which says if you are blind drunk then you can't get on the train. The company is just trying to make trains more secure for passengers.”