I think some people on this forum need to engage their brains before typing things as they simply make themselves look stupid.
A 9 year old girl was left, for all the mother knew, alone on an unmanned station platform at night. Now that doesnt seem like a very good thing to happen does it? Anything could have happened to the young girl from sitting in a shelter being very scared and not knowing what to do, to hurting herself, falling on the track, getting lost, wandering off or even being abducted!
The attitude of some people on here is frankly an embarrassment. The number of supercilious "experts" on here is astounding at times. Of course we know the train isnt going to reverse but a normal member of the public might not!!!!!!! That doesnt make them an idiot you imbeciles, it makes them a passenger! They are the people who pay our wages, lest we forget! The train will, of course, proceed along the line but arrangements needed to be made ASAP to rectify this situation.
Now, one never knows how much of the story is journalistic license or embellishment but the attitude of the staff, as presented, does not present a very good impression. It shows a total lack of compassion, gumption, empathy, organisation and dare I say it, professionalism. It may well be that the report is highly inaccurate in this regard, but if it is true it presents everyone in a poor light. As has been said I would have tried to calm the lady down, made a call to the police almost instantly and asked them to get a policeman to the site ASAP if only to provide some comfort to the girl and take her to the police station for safekeeping. In the next breath I would have contacted control, appraised them of the situation and asked them to have a taxi at the next station to get her back to the original station. Hell I would have given her the cash myself!
We are told that the protection of children is of the utmost priory in society. What some of you suggest is that the railway simply washes its hands of a small girl alone at night and reject, entirely, the duty of care to look after vulnerable people and simply chuff off in to the distance without a care in the world. In all honesty, YOU are the idiots. I will excuse the children on this forum their opinions as they might lack some life experience but some of you need to have a long hard look at yourselves. The railway is not perfect and it does no harm to say, sorry we got this one wrong.
And before anyone starts of course I think the mother has a duty to care for the child and that the door was, probably, working but the railway and railway staff can not simply walk away from vulnerable people. No one on the train knew the girl was being looked after so, surely, you must assume the worst and act accordingly