ECML Disruption - Saturday 27th December

[cf111]

Does anyone know what actually went wrong anyway? Was it the issues with isolating the OHLE as posted previously or something else?

I suppose the Mail would have the maintenance guys working under the energised wires anyway if that was the case...

 

[455driver]

Does anyone know what actually went wrong anyway? Was it the issues with isolating the OHLE as posted previously or something else?

I suppose the Mail would have the maintenance guys working under the energised wires anyway if that was the case...

Nope, but apparently, according to some, it was NRs fault!

 

[infobleep]

Maybe our lovely Government ought to give NR enough money to sort the network out then, instead of cutting their budget year after year in the name of 'efficiencies'!
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Which was made public about 6 months ago, but lets all make it sound like he is jumping because of the Christmas eff up! :roll:
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Why?
Was this failure down to NR then?
What about the Contractors and whoever was responsible for the planning and implementation of of the schedule for the renewals?

Why should any government give NR more money when they can get hold of a scapegoat when things go wrong?

Oh and I doubt things would change if Labour were in power.

 

[Class 170101]

And was the curve from ECML to NLL accessible anyway?

The only route available would have been the same route that Hull Trains were using to leave the ECML to reach St Pancras. From Harringay Park Jn forward via Gospel Oak and City Lines to reverse at Wembley thence into Euston. HSTs and drags only.

Realistically the better place to go may well have been Liverpool Street, via Canonbury Curve and Graham Road Curve. But as to whether a path could have been found is be open to question. Never mind route knowledge and traction clearance. This is an electrified route so Mark IVs would not have been prevented by lack of power supply en-route.

 

[Chris Wallis]

Why should any government give NR more money when they can get hold of a scapegoat when things go wrong?

Oh and I doubt things would change if Labour were in power.

I thought NR was the scapegoat here actually? (Edit: Oh hang on, is that what you were saying?)

Is there any need to give NR anymore money though. Couldn't they just stop subsidising Track Access Fee's and make the TOC's pay a more realistic amount?

What does Labour have to do with this?

 

[Red Dragon]

Just announced on Radio 4 - NR. will be interviewed on The World at One on Radio 4 today. Prog starts at 1pm .....

12:41: Network Rail BBC Radio 4 The head of Network Rail is on the World at One today, on Radio 4. Presumably to talk about those engineering "over-runs" at Kings Cross and Paddington at the weekend. And whether or not he may be receiving his bonus of about £135,000.

1.05 Sounds as if it's to be Carne interviewed now.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

The question must be asked, what probability was assigned to the equipment failure that threw the whole plan into chaos?

Obviously the impact was immense, so probability * impact should have resulted in a high risk score, hence mandating a credible mitigation plan would be worked out in advance.

Sounds like someone just assumed the failure "couldn't happen", exhibiting very poor knowledge of engineering works or just slipshod planning.

If the piece of kit is well maintained, the probability will be a very low figure, the impact figure will only be very high figure if the failure means the entire job comes to a standstill and there is no workaround e.g. the hydraulic jacks pushing a new bridge span across the tracks fail completely, now there's a failure you don't want - hundreds of tons of steel dangling across a mainline and no way to pull it back until they are fixed!

If, as has been suggested, it was a crane causing the delay, and there are only 5 such cranes in the country and all are in use at the same time, the cost of the mitigation / contingency plan is so great that you have 2 choices:
1) Don't to the work at all or,
2) Do the work and keep your fingers crossed, when it goes wrong you deal with it as best you can.

The former is not an option, although different ways of doing the work could be looked at. Perhaps a non-Christmas closure and accept the costs of that?

The latter seems naïve but lots of jobs outside railways seem to work on that basis. Many times everything works out fine so you build up an aura of confidence / self-belief or whatever - it hasn't happened in the past, why spend all that money on something that isn't going to happen. Especially if budgets are tight and you are looking to cut costs.

 

[class303]

Was booked on the 17.00 Edinburgh to Finsbury Park on the 27th.

Knew reservations were cancelled so Sat in 1st to pay for the upgrade. Now the train was FILTHY and did leave about 30 mins late, but considering how late the arrivals from the south were arriving I was glad. Practically had a whole carriage to myself. Staff were obviously stressed out understandably and they did arrange a pick up of the litter later in the journey.

Think things were a lot worse back in standard & I did meet what seemed to be a few coked up travellers in the buffet car going to Darlo. At one point I saw security guards walking down the train so god knows what had gone on. Finsbury Park actually more convenient for me than Kings Cross anyway, and no overcrowding whatsoever when we got there, 47 down. Was on the tube in seconds.

Certainly not the HELL on earth the daily mail reported but I had clearly missed the worst of it.

 

[steverailer]

I thought NR was the scapegoat here actually? (Edit: Oh hang on, is that what you were saying?)

Is there any need to give NR anymore money though. Couldn't they just stop subsidising Track Access Fee's and make the TOC's pay a more realistic amount?

What does Labour have to do with this?

Maybe some realistic allowances of possesions to get the work done? Not trying to fit a quart into a pint pot and no spare allowance if it goes wrong.

The network has lacked sufficent funding for many years, and is now suffering from that. NWR bow down to what the TOC's want, instead of saying we're shutting the line for longer to get the job done properly. This would lead to better forward planning by the TOCs.

As for the actual overrun, I suppose it was the same as at the site I was on. Plenty of 'engineers and planners' there in there shiny PPE and blue hats (normally behind a planning desk but out for the xmas overtime and bonus), asking questions and stick their noses in to complicate what the rest of us do day in and out.

Add into this the new planning software used that totally unrealistic. An example is on a recent job I was allocated 1 hour to move an insulator form one side of the track to the other. Due to lack of comunication from the blue hat engineer( not just a straight swap but a stagger move aswell) and seized bolts it took 4hrs.

 

[infobleep]

I thought NR was the scapegoat here actually? (Edit: Oh hang on, is that what you were saying?)

Is there any need to give NR anymore money though. Couldn't they just stop subsidising Track Access Fee's and make the TOC's pay a more realistic amount?

What does Labour have to do with this?

Well I could see people blaming the Tories so I was just trying to point out that in this case I believe all main parties are probably the same. They don't want to spend the money and if they can find a scapegoat that isn't their party they will.

In other words blame all politicians.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Oh it's able to be implemented. It's just that the resources are, more often than not, juggled on the day to make it work. And, more often than not, it does work. It is very noticeable that contingencies implemented at weekends or on bank / public holidays don't go as well as those implemented in the week. In my view this is down to lower resource levels available on these days, and people less willing to come in to work at short notice.

Outside the comfortable, unionised, railway system, there are millions of people (in the public and private sectors) who are effectively on call without any form of payment for their trouble - you get a call from the boss and you go in.

 

[Red Dragon]

Three points came out of the interview with Carne on Radio 4: -
1. The first two minutes were spent trying to get Carne to say he wasn't going to take his bonus. Carne said when he took over he reduced the maximum bonus from 150% of salary to 20%. He refused to say he wouldn't take his bonus - the remuneration committee would decide. Did himself no favours !
2. Carne had, today, instigated an inquiry into the problems at Kings Cross.
3. After discussions with the Sec of State a review of working practices would be carried out i.e. Should these major projects be carried out in other ways by shutting lines and doing the complete upgrade in one non-stop operation.

 

[khib70]

Chances are they sat down in the aisles, the vestibules, or even swapped seats with passengers that gave them up for a short time.

Maybe some had no option, but I am sure it wasn't as bad as some made out.

Ah, they sat down in the aisles. That's all right then. At least it is for you, sitting in your favourite armchair in your cosy living room, rather than being rammed in to a draughty vestibule for five hours.

Clearly passengers are required to shut up and take what ever solids NR/TOC's throw at them, while most of the posters on this forum think up excuses for those responsible for the whole fiasco.

 

[alastair]

Was booked on the 17.00 Edinburgh to Finsbury Park on the 27th.

Knew reservations were cancelled so Sat in 1st to pay for the upgrade. Now the train was FILTHY and did leave about 30 mins late, but considering how late the arrivals from the south were arriving I was glad. Practically had a whole carriage to myself. Staff were obviously stressed out understandably and they did arrange a pick up of the litter later in the journey.

Think things were a lot worse back in standard & I did meet what seemed to be a few coked up travellers in the buffet car going to Darlo. At one point I saw security guards walking down the train so god knows what had gone on. Finsbury Park actually more convenient for me than Kings Cross anyway, and no overcrowding whatsoever when we got there, 47 down. Was on the tube in seconds.

Certainly not the HELL on earth the daily mail reported but I had clearly missed the worst of it.

If first was empty and standard rammed, why on earth didnt TM declassify one of the firsts. In the circumstances surely the least they could have done?

 

[Chris Wallis]

Well I could see people blaming the Tories so I was just trying to point out that in this case I believe all main parties are probably the same. They don't want to spend the money and if they can find a scapegoat that isn't their party they will.

In other words blame all politicians.

Yes, I totally agree.

To be honest, I think I owe you an apology. For some reason I completely misread your original post. Not sure why either!

I'm sorry about that.

 

[jon0844]

Ah, they sat down in the aisles. That's all right then. At least it is for you, sitting in your favourite armchair in your cosy living room, rather than being rammed in to a draughty vestibule for five hours.

Clearly passengers are required to shut up and take what ever solids NR/TOC's throw at them, while most of the posters on this forum think up excuses for those responsible for the whole fiasco.

Of course it's not okay, but some people will have opted to sit in the aisle and get home eventually than not travel at all.

What a ridiculous conclusion to jump to from what I said!

When things go tits up, you usually see a Dunkirk spirit kick in and people just get on with it. Other people who might sit without saying a word to others or even daring to make eye contact begin to talk, people offer their seats to others 'for a bit' and so on.

Perhaps the best example of this was 7/7. Disruption beyond belief, but no complaints at all. People queuing without fuss at Finsbury Park for emergency shuttle trains to get them home.

As was demonstrated on the recent FGW documentary on Channel 5. In days gone by, people had to get home to moan and by then were probably calmed down (happy to have finally made it) but now they can Tweet 'live' and be sending comments/emails/photos to the net, newspapers and other media.

I have no doubt it was uncomfortable. Been there, done that etc - but assuming nobody was left sleeping in the corridors at Finsbury Park then I think things did get sorted and the most important thing is establishing what went wrong, and why, and how to stop it happening again.

 

[bramling]

East Coast's trains, as I understand it, were planned to terminate in the Up Fast platform and start back from there (the only platform which can turn back a train from the north), but it was later decided instead to shunt them, via the crossover north of the station) to the Down Fast to start in service there, to segregate the passenger flows. The GN outer suburbans were (all?) terminating in the other Up platforms - there's no direct access to anything on the Down side from the north - then shunting via Canonbury, which possibly caused some issues with route knowledge too (I seem to remember from a previous discussion that relatively few drivers sign it). I can certainly appreciate the difficulties in coming up with a workable contingency plan under those constraints.

As well as questioning whether the additional resources to guarantee being able to deliver one of many potential contingency plans could be justified, I'd also ask whether the train planning functions would have enough resources to prepare all these plans in the first place - and is that effort justified? Yes, the complete closure of Kings Cross is possibly a likely scenario generally, but was it a particularly high risk in this situation with a substantially reduced service planned to operate anyway? What about the other potentially disastrous scenarios - overrun at Welwyn, overrun at KX but able to hand just one line back, something else preventing access from Hornsey depot - how much would it cost to cover all potential scenarios with a detailed plan? Even if there was a plan ready to pull off the shelf - would it have been sufficient to cope with the passenger demand on the day?

From the Great Northern point of view, lessons which could be learned:

1) Ensure *all* trains are at least 8 carriages when there's any form of special working, so you don't end up with 4-car trains running about if things don't go to plan. As posted elsewhere, the issue of short platforms on the Royston - Cambridge section can be worked around by running a dedicated one-train shuttle service. Compared to the rest of the network, these are lightly used stations, and the fact that they have short platforms should not adversely affect the rest of the system in this way. Worst case, non-stop these stations for the day and pay for taxis. (In the long run, why on earth do these stations still have short platforms - allegedly they're being extended for Thameslink, so just get on with it!).

2) Better communications on the website and stations as to what services were actually running. There was more guidance on this forum than on the ground, and if I could work out from knowledge and experience where trains were going then staff should also know. These days station staff receive too much training in "customer care", and not enough on how the railway works. In times of disruption, you can always tell who are the "old school" station staff who know what they are doing!

3) Great Northern could have run some trains to Alexandra Palace, where it is possible to walk to Wood Green. Not ideal, but preferable to the Finsbury Park crush.

4) In past timetables, Great Northern have operated semi-fast class 313 services to Moorgate. Moorgate was open, but the only services were all-stations to WGC and Hertford. I've no idea why this wasn't done, but half-hourly 2x313 services to Letchworth calling only at outer-suburban stations would have eased the situation

5) The first priority should be getting those in to London who use the railway daily, i.e. those travelling to work keeping other essential services running! East Coast carrying large numbers of people making effectively non-essential journeys should have been lower down the list of priorities. So I'd have been tempted to abandon all East Coast services south of Grantham and tell people not to travel. (Note this point is wishful thinking, but I'm being half serious).

 

[6Z09]

Engineering overruns, or the possibility of them happening are nothing new!
Maybe now people are too afraid to make an early decision to cut work short due to the "liability culture" now all to apparent throughout the privatised industry!

 

[amcluesent]

there are millions of people (in the public and private sectors) who are effectively on call without any form of payment for their trouble - you get a call from the boss and you go in.

Yep, at our last management meeting before Crimbo, our CIO took a note of who would be in UK during the holiday weeks if there was a problem. I don't get an on-call allowance or indeed O/T on my grade but would certainly go in and sort out time in lieu etc. later. Isn't that part of and parcel of being a professional engineer?

 

[Antman]

Of course it's not okay, but some people will have opted to sit in the aisle and get home eventually than not travel at all.

What a ridiculous conclusion to jump to from what I said!

When things go tits up, you usually see a Dunkirk spirit kick in and people just get on with it. Other people who might sit without saying a word to others or even daring to make eye contact begin to talk, people offer their seats to others 'for a bit' and so on.

Perhaps the best example of this was 7/7. Disruption beyond belief, but no complaints at all. People queuing without fuss at Finsbury Park for emergency shuttle trains to get them home.

As was demonstrated on the recent FGW documentary on Channel 5. In days gone by, people had to get home to moan and by then were probably calmed down (happy to have finally made it) but now they can Tweet 'live' and be sending comments/emails/photos to the net, newspapers and other media.

I have no doubt it was uncomfortable. Been there, done that etc - but assuming nobody was left sleeping in the corridors at Finsbury Park then I think things did get sorted and the most important thing is establishing what went wrong, and why, and how to stop it happening again.

You cannot compare 7/7 with the events of the last few days, passengers who have paid a not inconsiderable sum of money to get somewhere by train are not going to adopt any Dunkirk spirit.

Car rental companies must have been rubbing their hands with glee.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Yep, at our last management meeting before Crimbo, our CIO took a note of who would be in UK during the holiday weeks if there was a problem. I don't get an on-call allowance or indeed O/T on my grade but would certainly go in and sort out time in lieu etc. later. Isn't that part of and parcel of being a professional engineer?

Yes, but clearly not part and parcel of being a professional driver, professional guard or professional station staff. Now, where's my tin hat.

 

[hwl]

From the Great Northern point of view, lessons which could be learned:
...

From NR recent Press Release today:
http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/News-Releases/Media-statement-from-Network-Rail-2219.aspx

Work to replace tracks at the entrance to the Hornsey Depot in North London has also been completed. This means that GoVia Thameslink can resume operation of their planned service on the Great Northern route.

Which might indicate that GN were having to run services with the stock they had stored everywhere apart from Hornsey?

 

[Robertj21a]

i dont understand how people can survive standing from London to Edinburgh. There must of been cases of people fainting?

Probably sat down a bit at times - somehow. Haven't heard of anyone fainting (though quite possible if already unwell etc).

 

[Tomnick]

Yes, but clearly not part and parcel of being a professional driver, professional guard or professional station staff. Now, where's my tin hat.

As a professional signalman (is the repeated use of the word supposed to be making a point?), I've been asked to come in to work overtime at minimal notice on quite a few occasions, usually to cover last-minite sickness. On some occasions I did, on others it wasn't concenient so I declined. Clearly it's not always going to be appropriate to go in - I obviously wouldn't if I'd consumed alcohol or I'd be too tired because I'd only just gone to bed. Bear in mind that we're not talking about just popping in briefly to sort out a problem - we're talking about undertaking safety-critical work for at least a few hours.

Incidentally, we've never failed (on our area at least) to keep the job moving with this approach, although I'm sure that occasionally a rather tempting offer, well above the normal rate of pay, has to be made to get someone in. Would they carry on doing that if they could routinely drag the 'on call' chap in to work eight hours? What sort of effect is that sort of regular enforced overtime have on long-term levels of fatigue and the work/life balance?

 

[dcsprior]

Outside the comfortable, unionised, railway system, there are millions of people (in the public and private sectors) who are effectively on call without any form of payment for their trouble - you get a call from the boss and you go in.

Yep, at our last management meeting before Crimbo, our CIO took a note of who would be in UK during the holiday weeks if there was a problem. I don't get an on-call allowance or indeed O/T on my grade but would certainly go in and sort out time in lieu etc. later. Isn't that part of and parcel of being a professional engineer?

Many people, including me, are happy to provide "best efforts" callout for free. This means being on a list of people who may be called, and may or may not be able to respond. This is very common in many areas of work.

However when I hear about people being "on call" I take it to mean there being constraints on what they can do in their own time - such as: a requirement to be able to answer the phone (can't go out of signal coverage or somewhere where its socially unacceptable to have a phone not on silent); be able to logon within a certain time (have to carry laptop, and have to be somewhere with wi-fi or 3G); and be fit (incl sober) and able to work. If this is what we mean, then it is not reasonable for people to be expected to do this for free.

Yes, but clearly not part and parcel of being a professional driver, professional guard or professional station staff. Now, where's my tin hat.

In addition to the constraints that I mention above, these are jobs which you have to be physically present in order to do, so the disruption to personal life would be even greater.

 

[21C101]

I can't help thinking that it would have been better for the possession to have lasted for an extra day and everything planned round that. Then if things had finished a day early it would have been a lot easier to run from Kings Cross after all than the other way around.

I suspect that the whole delay payments regime makes this sort of common sense approach very expensive financially for Network Rail.

The core problem as to what caused the overrun seems to be structural to me, that the people who operate the trains do not control the infrastructure. If only Major had stuck to his guns and privatised by recreating the Big Four + Scotrail owning track and trains.

In the long term I think there is a need for GN route knowledge to Liverpool Street. Graham Road Curve comes in on the west anglia slow lines side so using liverpool street ought to be feasible at Weekends, if not, Running GN outer suburban trains (and maybe intercities as well) to Stratford and/ or Liverpool St ought to be feasible from 2018 when Crossrail opens. A daily Peterborough to Liverpool St Mon-Fri in the morning and evening peak would enable the route knowledge to be gained and, I suspect, be well used by city commuters.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

In addition to the constraints that I mention above, these are jobs which you have to be physically present in order to do, so the disruption to personal life would be even greater.

The other side of this coin is the TOC contingency plans once the lines were not available as expected.

Could office staff at TOCs not be on call, and suitably trained, to do passenger assistance duties at places like Finsbury Park when things go badly wrong?

With Drivers it is more difficult, but in answer to those who monstered me for suggesting on call for Drivers, if there was a full complement of drivers - meaning that rest day working and overtime was not normally needed (as against the present system where it appears to be the norm) - then drivers could be on call for rest day working/overtime one week in four within the limits of Hidden rules and work their 35 hour week only otherwise. Its not rocket science, but the kneejerk reaction is that it cannot be done is deployed with the vigour of party politicians defending the party line.

And as to S&T on call being nonsense. Well, I must have imagined that radiopager I used to have years ago; but then we on the Southern Region always did consider it much better run than the rest with a much more flexible, les union dominated, attitude from staff.

Sadly this is my last ever post at this forum, as I really can't spare the time any more; and, rather than constructive conversation into how the railway could and should be run, there is far too much negativism and defence of the status quo at all costs in some quarters. Happy new year everyone, and I look forward to seeing one or two of you on the first Taw Valley hauled Railtour from Waterloo to Plymouth via Okehampton in a few years.

 

[PG]

Where can I read the report into this incident and its conclusions as to why delays were incurred? I only ask as people are talking about the need to sack members of Network Rail staff and I'd have thought that could only really be discussed once there was a detailed understanding of what went wrong? Or is that not required?

I'll second that... far too much knee-jerk decision making/reaction in this country these days. I'm sure in due course we will be able to understand and then discuss this incident.

Oh dear...perhaps they should employ Paul McKenna as a consultant next time??

I note how, by enlarging your attachment, the Daily Wail seem to think NR set the fares on the railways - can imagine the (excuse the pun) train of thought must be along the lines of we've got the boot on so lets carry on and give them a proper kicking :roll:

...led to fresh calls from MPs for heads to roll at Network Rail. The infrastructure firm, which taxpayers fund with £5billion a year, was already under fire for announcing 'rip-off' new year fare rises.

i dont understand how people can survive standing from London to Edinburgh. There must of been cases of people fainting?

Chances are they sat down in the aisles, the vestibules, or even swapped seats with passengers that gave them up for a short time.

Travelling from Ely to Scotland on Saturday, I arrived into Peterborough at 11:54 on a full and standing XC service - all platforms bursting at the seams and footbridge also totally clogged with people. As I had a SVR ticket I took one look at the numbers attempting to board the next Edinburgh departure (many physically unable to squeeze on-board) and opted for the next Leeds service instead, which the CIS was displaying as Finsbury Park.
Plenty of seats available in Standard and the TM apologised "for the utter shambles at Peterborough" and the lack of catering facilities and shortly afterwards declassified First class - full marks for excellent service!
After changing at Doncaster (using station catering facilities) I then continued on a very packed Edinburgh service. People standing in vestibules and down aisles but all accepting and good spirited and once people realised it would remain so they did indeed swap seats, and swap back again, to ease the burden on their fellow passengers
Managed to forget a carrier bag on arrival at Edinburgh so returned to the train 7/8 minutes later to find it already boarding for returning south, not cleaned but then I guess the priority was to get passengers away so that they stood a chance of making onward connections. Found bag in luggage rack exactly where I'd left it and then got onward connection with Scotrail arriving 75 minutes late overall.

So, all in all, not a particularly pleasant journey but the best under the circumstances. Yes I'll submit a claim for delay repay but I'm not going to get all het up and moan to the media. East Coast advised deferring travel until Sunday or Monday so I knew it wasn't going to be perfect.

 

[Aldaniti]

The head of an organisation needs not only to have an overview of operations, but also needs to demonstrate leadership and motivational skills. These engineering overruns - with all the subsequent chaos - seem to happen almost every year at Christmas, so you would expect there to be some contingency. I don't know whether Network Rail had any contingency plans in place, but they should have at least expected the media reaction, ill-informed or not. Mark Carne should have made his way to London on Saturday or Sunday. There is probably little else he could have done, but it would have demonstrated to passengers, the media, it's viewers and readers, that he was in control. He could have explained the problem (many people are sympathetic when they find out what has happened, whoever is at fault, but even now there is still ambiguity). He could have re-assured passengers that action was being taken, and motivated rail staff by demonstrating his control and leadership skills whilst thanking them for doing a difficult job. It might well have taken the sting out of the media reaction. However, he failed to do so, preferring to stay in Cornwall. That is like a red flag to a bull to the media, particularly where the perception is that the head of an organisation is taking a holiday whilst Rome burns. He should have pre-emptied that, and taken the sting out of the subsequent backlash. He didn't and the negative headlines on the rail industry are now being written accordingly. I'm not going to call for anyone's head, but I have to say that Carne's failure to foresee and to lead from the front is not what I would expect from a Chief Executive of Network Rail currently commanding a salary of £675,000 pa.

 

[bramling]

From NR recent Press Release today:
http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/News-Releases/Media-statement-from-Network-Rail-2219.aspx

Which might indicate that GN were having to run services with the stock they had stored everywhere apart from Hornsey?

Very interesting - and I've just had this confirmed from another source.

*However* - most Great Northern outer-suburban stock tends to stable at the country end most nights, so I don't believe this should have reduced the stock availability that much, *unless* things were arranged differently for Christmas. It would explain the scarcity of class 313 services, however.

Whatever, it's still bad planning.

 

[jon0844]

You cannot compare 7/7 with the events of the last few days, passengers who have paid a not inconsiderable sum of money to get somewhere by train are not going to adopt any Dunkirk spirit.

Yes I can, and I just did. I know all about 7/7 and was at Finsbury Park that afternoon, so it was even more relevant.

But, yes, some people won't accept disruption even if they do get home eventually. Chances are some of those people put out who paid a not inconsiderable sum got a lot of that money back if their train was delayed or cancelled, mind.

Edit: PG above has pretty much confirmed what I thought about people all making the best of a bad situation and proving the Dunkirk spirit is brought out in all of us.