VIRGIN Trains has apologised after it was accused of not taking a complaint of misogyny seriously.

Customer Emily Cole posted on Twitter that she had felt patronised by a train manager after she made a query, saying he had referred to her as "honey".

But in response the company's account replied: "Sorry for the mess up Emily, would you prefer "pet" or "love" next time?"

This was met with accusations of sexism from other users, eventually forcing Virgin to apologise and delete the tweet.

On her account @EmilyLucindaRC, Ms Cole posted: "Wonderful to see that @virgin_trainsEC take complaints of rude and misogynistic behaviour seriously. Stunned."

The response from Virgin said: "We apologise unreservedly for this tweet and for the offence caused. To avoid causing more offence we have deleted the original post."

It came on the same day that rail users were hit with the largest fare rise in five years.