OHL Issues WCML - Carnforth Area

[LNW-GW Joint]

It's quite possible some southbound passengers caught up in this had also been delayed by the points problem at Carstairs around 1700.
1813 TP and 1852 VT out of Edinburgh, both already over an hour late, were terminated at Carlisle.

 

[LWB]

Only on the mountain tops

Slightly inaccurate

 

[mrmartin]

Once a 2+ hour delay passes midnight, hotel accommodation should be compulsory. It is not acceptable to expect passengers to wait at Carlisle from 6:30pm until the wee hours before catching a coach down the M6 to Preston, then a 1am train to Euston arriving around 4am! All this on the "coldest night of the year", according to the Met Office. You get the feeling that in these circumstances Virgin couldn't orchestrate worse customer relations and PR if they tried.

To be fair many airlines will delay flights horrendously and not provide overnight accommodation, so I dont know if it should be automatic. Also would be hard to find hundreds of hotel rooms in Oxenholme at very short notice, for example.

I think the real problem is having people queueing for buses in sub zero temperatures. Not sure how they can solve that but some thought needs to be put in to that as it's pretty unacceptable.

One idea would be to have an iPad that took everyone's mboile number then text them when their coach was ready (like restaurants have when there is a queue for tables sometimes). At least that way people could go to a local pub or coffee shop and keep warm (almost certainly adding a fair few £ to the local.economy too!).

 

[driver9000]

The question to ask is"How are the passengers getting to Preston"?.....Need to be provided with buses/coaches from Oxenholme?....Presume starting from Preston as I think there is no crossover at Lancaster ,so unable to reverse a pendilino ?..Obviously not a problem at Preston.

Both platforms at Lancaster fully bi directional with cross overs at both ends of the station. The 05:13 London service often uses the south end crossover departing from platform 3 as does the ECS off the 20:30 arrival from London.

 

[6Gman]

Once a 2+ hour delay passes midnight, hotel accommodation should be compulsory. It is not acceptable to expect passengers to wait at Carlisle from 6:30pm until the wee hours before catching a coach down the M6 to Preston, then a 1am train to Euston arriving around 4am! All this on the "coldest night of the year", according to the Met Office. You get the feeling that in these circumstances Virgin couldn't orchestrate worse customer relations and PR if they tried.

But then there's the issue of finding several hundred vacant bed spaces in Carlisle at short notice.

 

[rebmcr]

Why were they not allowed to wait on board the train that had already got them that far? Was the power off?

 

[mrmartin]

Yeah I also wondered that. Seems much more preferable to booting everyone off into very very cold stations when they will know there is a long wait ahead. Perhaps driver would be then over hours though?

 

[Carlisle]

All this on the "coldest night of the year", according to the Met Office. .

It will have been somewhere in the Scottish highlands, but it didn’t drop below about -2 around here. Had colder nights this winter and no snow either

 

[Class83]

Why were they not allowed to wait on board the train that had already got them that far? Was the power off?

Indeed, hopefully TOCs all have Risk Assessments/Emergency Plans. Having a plan for what to do with passengers in the Lake District that doesn't involve exposing them to sub zero temperatures should be in there. A cupboard full of space blankets in such stations might be a wise investment, and keeping people on the train until replacement transport arrives unless there is a heated waiting area in the station. I agree that finding hundreds of hotel rooms in Oxenholme, Penrith and Carlisle at 10pm probably was quite difficult, but airlines would be (under the EU261 regulations) expected to pick up hotel bills if passengers were delayed overnight.