Why are you talking about "a" taxi when what we're actually talking about 50+ taxis? I'd like to see you organise that many at short notice anywhere and have it not take a very long time.
As for putting them on busses, it's not as simple as that. How are you going to arrange payment? Busses don't take cash, so you're relying on a passenger having the necessary means to pay. Being cashless I'm not even sure if they give out tickets anymore, so that would mean even if they do getting TL to pay later won't work. So that would have taken time to organise as well, to get acceptable of rail passengers at no charge. By the time you've done that you might as well have got them taxis
We're talking central London, not the middle of nowhere. It would be interesting to know if the number of people was higher including other passengers, but the previous quote was 50+ passengers - this shouldn't have to translate into 50+ taxis.
The quote about having a preferred taxi supplier makes sense. But I'd hope there isn't an exclusivity agreement, and I don't see why TL can't improve their systems. Obvious options include having multiple arrangements (especially to cover central London, with agreements with firms towards the destination), good procedures to authorise passengers requesting their own taxi/ph with prompt refund.
Could staff on here tell us what the general procedure is for taxis? Do you have to call taxis/private hire with a pre-arranged supplier? Is there an option to use black cabs ranking? Is there an option to hire off the rank at another station (e.g. control calls KGX/Victoria/Waterloo - I realise this is crossing ToC lines - and asks them to hire some taxis from the rank).
I see the bus option as more a reflection of how slow things were. However, the £5 one day bus & tram pass can be issued at all National Rail stations, so could have been an option offered.
It should go without saying - but to be clear - without these options being open to them and pre-planned, I understand the staff on the ground would not have been able to do things any better at the time.
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How are staff supposed to know how long it's going to take? It takes as long as it takes. I'm not sure exactly what you think they were doing while all this was going on, other than doing their best to get passengers to their destinations? Do you think they were sitting around drinking cups of tea?
To labour the point, I don't think anyone has implied that rail staff were being lazy, but that GTR has failed. Potentially, that's in understaffing. Potentially, in policies/procedure/planning (or lack thereof) which stop staff efficiently resolving.
The only thing that needs to happen on-the-ground is identifying the number of passengers, where they need to go, and organising into taxi groups, and getting into taxis. That should be quite a low amount of time per-passenger. Delays are due to problems in the plan, or lack of staff to implement.
