At least they have comfortable seats….
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ECML blocked Stevenage - Hitchin (09/08 and 10/08))
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Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
Just as well it was early evening it would have been a greenhouse early in the afternoon. Im pretty sure theres no emergency hopper windows on these that i can recollect anyhow.
horsewalrus
Member
GN/TL's socials reporting ~15 minutes ago that a rescue train is on the way for a side-to-side evacuation:
x.com
Must say it's not great that it's taken until now, given that some people will have been on 2C55 for four hours now...
x.com
x.com
Must say it's not great that it's taken until now, given that some people will have been on 2C55 for four hours now...
All line block while earthing of OHL takes place, then passenger off 2C55 evacuated onto 1D28 and taken north to Hitchin.GN/TL's socials reporting ~15 minutes ago that a rescue train is on the way for a side-to-side evacuation:
x.com
Must say it's not great that it's taken until now, given that some people will have been on 2C55 for four hours now...
And by the time they reach London it will have probably been at least a 5 hour journey for a journey that is meant to take max 1h 25 minsGN/TL's socials reporting ~15 minutes ago that a rescue train is on the way for a side-to-side evacuation:
x.com
Must say it's not great that it's taken until now, given that some people will have been on 2C55 for four hours now...
londonmidland
Established Member
A passenger has reported on Twitter/X to have been stuck on a Thameslink/Great Northern service now for four hours now, with no water or refreshments. Conditions, understandably, appear to be deteriorating onboard this train.
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
As i thought earlier it just takes an inordinate amount of time to call out staff and then get them onto site just to take an isolation let alone deal with the damage.
1D28 is on the DF 2C55 is on US so they are going to have to shunt across presumably at Stevenage and run it upto 2C55. Can't imagine there was that many people on it not have evacuated via the track although its now dark I appreciate. Meanwhile 1A91 and 9J55 are siting outside of platforms for now 4hrs. 1B89 now being shunted over at Sandy.
Going to be alot of passengers marooned all over the place here.
Everything seems to get worse with each incident, every incident now takes longer and longer to resolve.
They may evacuate onto track then back onto 1D28.
Currently 4 trapped trains with no power
2C55
1T51
9J55
1A41
Four hours stuck on a train is unacceptable and to be honest I can understand why passengers are tempted to self evacuate.
Class 700s have no opening windows
The seats are uncomfortable
There's no catering or even emergency bottled water onboard
The only member of staff on board will be the driver
It’s embarrassing at all levels.
It really does beggar belief that on such a busy bit of track, not exactly in the middle of nowhere, with diesel trains available that apparently can run, that you have trains that have been stuck for over 4 hours and they haven't yet managed to even start transferring people off.
There's just too many of these incidents happening nowadays, and it is hard to point fingers at people self-evacuating if they're at all aware just how bad the railway has got with managing this sort of thing. How many more reports/investigations will it take before the railway starts to properly deal with this sort of thing, or does something *really* bad need to happen first?
There's just too many of these incidents happening nowadays, and it is hard to point fingers at people self-evacuating if they're at all aware just how bad the railway has got with managing this sort of thing. How many more reports/investigations will it take before the railway starts to properly deal with this sort of thing, or does something *really* bad need to happen first?
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
Done to trackside then? Why not do the same to 2C55?
Trackside to access point.
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
1A91 been sitting for 4.5hrs in the middle of Hitchin Stn surely they could have evacuated across to the Up platform side safely out of one or two doors. I can see 1T51 sitting in the platform but it wont be more than 8 coaches.
62484GlenLyon
Member
Was 1T51 actually in Hitchin station or agonisingly short of the platform?
Is there staff there to do it? Need a minimum amount of staff per Evacuation train.
How do you know it’s in station? It could be still over 1/4 mile away? Just because headcode is in that section, just means train is in that signal section .
It’s all well and good looking on internet saying what should/shouldnt be done.
The above goes for 1A41 and 1T51.
Twitter pics from onboard show 1A41 middle road in Hitchin station
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
Yup thats fair point need to remember its the berth not the position of the train. Anyhow 1A41 is in the station see this tweet from someone on the train
https://x.com/aliko_thomas/status/1822006225422446814
Which is fair enough, but posters suggesting a train be evacuated purely based off a map.
No you definitely can’t go off that. Looking at those Twitter pics maybe 1T51 isn’t in the station
Priority should be all stranded trains dealt with before allowing any other trains to move through area, always thought that was the policy since Lewisham.
No excuse for not all line blocking Hitchin so crew and station staff (if any) with help of btp can evacuate 1A41. No excuse
horsewalrus
Member
Especially given it left Leeds at 16:45 - some people would have been on it for 6.5 hours (the one saving grace would be that it's LNER so would probably have food/water on board - not something that can be said for the TL/GNs!).
londonmidland
Established Member
That (the train they're on) looks like its on the Up Fast/through lines, not on the actual line which serves the platform?
1 x 330ml bottle of water per customer, they don’t hold that much water.
Plus not that many snacks.
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
Yup I have acknowledged my error in just using berth location but out of all the trains 1A41 looks the easiest one to have evacuated being at least partly within station confines.
Where are you looking at 1A91?
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
yoiks 1A41