But then I'd argue that ignoring someone in that situation is worse. People being ignored or perceiving that they are being ignored also tends to send them loopy, certainly judging by some of the 'why are you ignoring me' followed by abuse type of messages that are normally a staple of those twitter pages.
On a related note, does anyone have experience of trying to claim back 'reasonable expenses' from Avanti after a situation like this. Would be interested to know how it works. The way passengers are treated by Avanti is quite frankly unforgivable
Just to further this one - an experience I had a few weeks ago. I wasn't travelling by rail but finished with a colleague late at night (around midnight) so went to get a taxi from Gordon Street outside Central. As anyone familiar will know, Glasgow in that area at 1130pm can be ..... boisterous. Ubers flying around left right and centre. In front of me a pair of young overseas students. They seemed a little confused and eventually one of them asked if they were in the right place for a taxi, I reassured them they were.
Making small talk, my friend asked where they were off to, and one of them, speaking very broken English said she was off to Edinburgh, because the train there had been cancelled. (On the way home I checked RTT and there did indeed seem to be a Northbound cancellation to Edinburgh). Therefore Avanti staff had told them to get a taxi. At midnight. In a city an hour's drive from home. That was it. End of Advice. The woman had no concept she would have to pay for said taxi. Whilst the situation seemed odd to me, as the queue continued up the pavement behind us, the chances of battling the crowds to get to speak to someone from Avanti for the woman and her friend to explain their situation to, at Midnight, seemed slim, and she risked being a further 20 minutes back in the queue for no purpose.
I said to the woman that she would likely need to show the taxi driver some cash, since many would not embark on a trip like this (I would guess probably £100-150 fare) into the night without it - and showed her where the nearby cash machine was at Sainsburys. Having done so, They did indeed get in the taxi in front of us and I trust got safely to their home. However I must say the whole thing left me feeling rather .... "what if it was my sister / daughter / partner ?" etc.
Someone from Avanti has given that passenger that advice, for young, vulnerable people to leave a railway station amidst total chaos, without any understanding that they would need to resource their own taxi - doubtless at far higher cost than their original fare, and in the faint hope that it would be reimbursed by Avanti at a later date (doubtless all the standard issue "within 28 days" nonsense. Certainly, thinking back to my own student days, there were several points where I would not have had the money for that fare in my bank.
A few months ago there was the whole "leaving the schoolkids stranded in Preston to find their own bus to Cumbernauld" incident
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/train-...hour-journey-with-50-children-left-at-station
One wonders whether it will take some form of serious incident for rail companies to take seriously their responsibilities to all passengers in such scenarios, which sadly, seem to be all the more common. It seems to me the potential risks to passengers in such situations, situations which they simply would not be in were it not for railway/DfT incompetence, is really very significant. At very least, identifying a safe space for people to wait whilst onward transport/hotels are organised, by Avanti, at Avanti's immediate cost (for example on one of the several platformed trains, or ideally, on the one they have arrived on) would seem really the very basic "due care" we should expect.
www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk
railsmartr.co.uk