Nobody was left behind, but in my view it was dangerously over crowded in side. People where falling all over the place as there were not enough hand rails/holds, probably not helped by alcohol consumption.
I got off at Stevenage and I was really surprised that there were no staff working to assist passengers as well.
I know these forums are naturally going to be pro rail, but it would be nice to see someone say "we got it wrong last night". Having a counter argument is not always the best way to learn - defensiveness doesn't lead to honest discussion or improvement.
Sometimes TOC's are justifiably criticised, soemtimes the criticism is not justified.
Personally, I would love to have a railway where there is capacity for everyone to travel when they want to, with their bicycles if they want to, surfboards, five suitcases each, and with plenty of staff on hand to sell tickets, provide information and assistance from the first to the last trains of the day.
Sadly we don't have that. We could, but it would eithe rmean a radical, and I mean radical, rethink of what we want from our railway system and how it should be funded, or greatly increased fares (again) to pay for it all.
What we do have, as has already been pointed out, is a system which is finite in terms of capcity, both in terms of the number of carriages available, and the number of staff. Against this background, TOC's are really fighting a bit of a losing battle during this period, and that is before unexpected train faults and failures come into the equation.
One of the most frequent comments I hear on my daily travels is 'Why can't they put more carriages on?'. The simpel answer is 'There aren't any', but people do, rightly or wrongly, expect that there are. I always tell people to have a look around, it's not as if there are sidings full of stock just sitting there waiting fro football matches, concerts, ash clouds, or the Olympic Games!