Mrs. Wychwood and I were caught up in this. We arrived in Southampton around 11.00 on a Victoria/Southampton service - I could tell immediately that something was up as there were assorted trains in the 'wrong' platforms for that time. We boarded what could have been the next train to leave - the somewhat delayed 09.05 Waterloo/Weymouth. Good info. from the guard as to the lack of progress - until we had the 'this train is being terminated here' bit. Buses had been requested and should be available fairly soon. Around 12.00 we boarded a RRB - a single decker Xelabus - destined for Brockenhurst, New Milton, Christchurch and Bournemouth. As we were heading home this was fine and we hopped off at Christchurch at around 13.40. We caught the bus back home and were delayed overall by some two hours as a result - not too bad and, as retired staff, we are not looking for 'delay repay'. We were told at the time that it was a train failure - having read the above I can see that it was, although not the fault of the train itself! Re. the negative comments above about PIS - very hard for the staff involved to ensure someone keeps that updated in an evolving situation. The platform and gateline staff did the best they could with the information they had and the number of people wanting to know what the 'clucking bell' was going on.
I did wonder about the 'failed train' bit - had it been just that, it would have been resolved sooner and I was surprised when I was at home that it was still ongoing. All of us on here who are current and former staff have stumbled across similar situations on many occasions. The staff that I observed yesterday did as well as they could and a thank you to them for that!
