There were phone line issues which initially hampered communication between the panel and WICC, but a plan was formulated to have the failed unit rescued by the one behind (as you would), which also unfortunately failed after very slow progress initially with several intermittent false starts. There were issues with platform occupation back at Southampton by the time both trains were declared a failure by the driver (which was gone 0100 by then) due to all the trains now going nowhere and Northam now full. Evacuation plans were then drawn up with request for help put out to BTP who had no unit available. Various attempts were made to source replacement road transport in various forms and accommodation but to no avail, so evacuating all 200+ stranded passengers would then deposit most of them at Bournemouth station, still stranded with insufficient shelter, and a decision was made to keep them onboard and concentrate effort on getting things moving with intermittent line light and sufficient de-icer for the shoegears. Unfortunately attempts at getting trains moving were unsuccessful. Road access was nigh on impossible. The option to deploy the diesel unit on the Lymington shuttle for evacuation was also explored, but put to bed due to a set of frozen points. The decision was then made to have 1O24 as the rescue train with the clock now at 0500. No MOM were able to attend for various reasons. Two members of PWAY attended at 0230 who helped with de-icing tasks, etc.
There was one error I could see, in that the driver of 1O24 missed one of the stranded trains due allegedly to miscommunication, which meant he had to reverse back and pick up those passengers, delaying the rescue operation by about an hour.
From what I can see, lots of decisions were made promptly the moment it became clear that a proposed course of action would not work over the course of the incident. No, it didn't work out as well as everyone would have hoped, and yes, with hindsight it may have been better to simply have 1O24 make a WDM the moment the first train failed and take all passengers, but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it? If that didn't work out then I am sure criticism would have been forthcoming in why this course of action was taken instead of trying to get the culprit train moving since it had line light from time to time, delaying everything by a few hours. Had 100+ (possibly more) passengers been stranded at Bournemouth station, now exposed to the elements at 4am, I am sure similar criticism would also have been sent the same way.
I do not have fingers in my ear. Not once did I say the WICC were perfect in their handling of this incident, or any other ones, far from it. Something definitely went very wrong last night the way things turned out, and I'm sure plenty of things can be learned from the incident. It is your allegation that they cannot make decisions promptly that is patently incorrect in this case.
As I said time and time again, I have no problem whatsoever with criticism, as it is a great source for learning. What I will not accept, and will robustly challenge, is unfair criticism.
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