I was on this train with family. We did not get home until 7am. The volunteer stewards did their best but it was absolute chaos. Compass knew how many passengers needed to get to each pickup point, and West Coast Rail should have known how many buses were needed when it was decided the train had to return to York. We were told to wait in our groups, at the front of the station, outside at 2.am even though it was extremely cold. There was no organisation at all.I only saw two buses and was told the one for Chesterfield was full and had left before we got out of the station. At 5.30am we were told that they thought all the Chesterfield passengers had gone even though there were 18 of us in a group still waiting for transport and at 5.45 were given taxis to get us back to Chesterfield. We were not offered even a drink of water from the train stopping at about 10pm. There was only one seat in the waiting area and it was bitterly cold. It also seemed that some passengers who complained loudly managed to get taxies in record time.
What was really upsetting was that one lady had taken her grandson who was learning disabled. He was very stressed out and ran off back into the station and could not be found for along time. Of course his grandmother was very distressed. I spoke to her and she said she had been promised a taxi, I think she should have had priority treatment but she waited almost as long as we did for transport. I cannot speak highly enough for the Compass volunteers,and especially the two young men who were still on duty when we left. It was a shame that a wonderful trip was ruined,and made worse by bad organisation on the part of West Coast Rail.
