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sequence of events:
18:33 LNWR train Crewe - Euston (EUS) delayed 82 minutes at Milton Keynes (MKC) due to fatality near Bletchley.
Departs MKC makes unscheduled stop Hemel Hempstead (HML) 21:56. Passengers requested to disembark at HML and join following train ~ announcement “3 trains expected within next 30 minutes”.
Train departs empty. Seems to return northbound.
50 passengers on HML platform ~ a cold dark windy place with no enclosed waiting room or catering facilities. No effective communication with stranded passengers.
Multiple delays and cancellations but many MKC - EUS services running but passing non-stop.
Scheduled 23:49 departure to EUS runs according to recenttraintimes but fails to stop at HML.
HML departure board prepares passengers for unscheduled stop of 23:13 LNWR train MKC -EUS (HML at 00:14) but train runs past without stopping.
Nearly hypothermic passengers at HML not picked up by following train until 00:35. 2 hours 39 minutes after being dumped on platform and abandoned by train which probably returned to depot.
No provision of help with onward transport from EUS. No train services southbound in small hours.
I was just one passenger eventually home in south London by 4am, 5 hours late, by bicycle and night bus.
My impression is that 50 passengers were left in the cold and dark with inadequate shelter no food or drink & poor communication for nearly 3 hours because LNWR gave moving trains and train crew for operational reasonal reasons priority over it's duty of care for passengers.
It would have been easy to transfer passengers earlier to alternative trains at MKC or to have one of many Avanti or LNWR southbound services make an unscheduled stop.
I would appreciate this forum's advice about how to raise this most effectively as a complaint and have these events properly investigated by the railway.
18:33 LNWR train Crewe - Euston (EUS) delayed 82 minutes at Milton Keynes (MKC) due to fatality near Bletchley.
Departs MKC makes unscheduled stop Hemel Hempstead (HML) 21:56. Passengers requested to disembark at HML and join following train ~ announcement “3 trains expected within next 30 minutes”.
Train departs empty. Seems to return northbound.
50 passengers on HML platform ~ a cold dark windy place with no enclosed waiting room or catering facilities. No effective communication with stranded passengers.
Multiple delays and cancellations but many MKC - EUS services running but passing non-stop.
Scheduled 23:49 departure to EUS runs according to recenttraintimes but fails to stop at HML.
HML departure board prepares passengers for unscheduled stop of 23:13 LNWR train MKC -EUS (HML at 00:14) but train runs past without stopping.
Nearly hypothermic passengers at HML not picked up by following train until 00:35. 2 hours 39 minutes after being dumped on platform and abandoned by train which probably returned to depot.
No provision of help with onward transport from EUS. No train services southbound in small hours.
I was just one passenger eventually home in south London by 4am, 5 hours late, by bicycle and night bus.
My impression is that 50 passengers were left in the cold and dark with inadequate shelter no food or drink & poor communication for nearly 3 hours because LNWR gave moving trains and train crew for operational reasonal reasons priority over it's duty of care for passengers.
It would have been easy to transfer passengers earlier to alternative trains at MKC or to have one of many Avanti or LNWR southbound services make an unscheduled stop.
I would appreciate this forum's advice about how to raise this most effectively as a complaint and have these events properly investigated by the railway.