nanstallon
Member
- Joined
- 18 Dec 2015
- Messages
- 1,063
It is time that TOCs were made to take responsibility for their passengers.
I was on a Great Western Railway Penzance to London train, which was terminated at Exeter, due to flooding. We were told there was no alternative transport, and that we should go home. At least, that was in the middle of the day. Much worse was South Western Railway's behaviour as repoted in the Guardian -
"A storm was raging when South Western Railway ordered all passengers to alight. The delayed 18.27 London to Exeter service was an hour from its destination, and torrential rain had prompted the company to abandon the journey.
"An announcement promised that coaches would relay travellers onwards but, when the train terminated at Yeovil Junction, no coaches could be found. Travellers would need to find taxis but none were available either.
"The conductor reboarded the train and it drove off into the night leaving a couple of dozen people, including an unaccompanied minor, stranded on the platform of a locked, unstaffed station in the middle of the countryside."
I am getting a feeling that railways do not run in bad weather. It used to be that the train always got through, but now there is no resilience and railways are no longer to be relied on; they just want your money and will abandon you when it suits them. Airlines are obliged to look after passengers when there are difficulties, not abandon them as railways now do.
I was on a Great Western Railway Penzance to London train, which was terminated at Exeter, due to flooding. We were told there was no alternative transport, and that we should go home. At least, that was in the middle of the day. Much worse was South Western Railway's behaviour as repoted in the Guardian -
"A storm was raging when South Western Railway ordered all passengers to alight. The delayed 18.27 London to Exeter service was an hour from its destination, and torrential rain had prompted the company to abandon the journey.
"An announcement promised that coaches would relay travellers onwards but, when the train terminated at Yeovil Junction, no coaches could be found. Travellers would need to find taxis but none were available either.
"The conductor reboarded the train and it drove off into the night leaving a couple of dozen people, including an unaccompanied minor, stranded on the platform of a locked, unstaffed station in the middle of the countryside."
I am getting a feeling that railways do not run in bad weather. It used to be that the train always got through, but now there is no resilience and railways are no longer to be relied on; they just want your money and will abandon you when it suits them. Airlines are obliged to look after passengers when there are difficulties, not abandon them as railways now do.