This place amazes me at times as it appears passengers can never be right. Passengers don't set out to annoy those working on the railway but stick them in a situation that the don't know and survival instinct kicks in.
Years ago, just after the introduction of the SWT 444s, I was travelling late at night on an icy even. We came to a stop just outside a station. After a while, some of the train lighting dimmed and the heating was not effective. After an hour of no news, some passengers banged on the drivers door - no response. We walked through the train, very few passengers, no sign of the guard. We banged on the rear cab door - no response.
Its easy to feel abandoned at this point having not moved or heard from anyone for an hour. The SWT helpline didn't even realise the train was delayed!
Those who don't know how the railways work don't understand whether the train is protected by signals in these situations or whether another train could cause an incident. After 90 minutes, another passenger was going to exit the train. We talked them down to activating the passcom instead. This suddenly generated action from both the guard and driver who were consumed with rage that the passcom had been activated. Why could they not have done a PA or at best walked through the train once in 90 minutes?
I discussed this experience with someone from SWT management at length. SWT agreed that updates at least every 10 minutes were reasonable if only to confirm a) you're in the safest place, b) contact with the outside world has been made and c) staff are on this train working to resolve the problem. SWT agreed that ordinary passengers don't set out to detrain themselves. But when you've heard nothing for an extended period of time, you're packed in like sardines, you've seen no member of staff anywhere, you don't know if you're safer on the train or off it. It causes people to make irrational judgement calls.
