Which I'm sure, as (I believe) a member of station staff, he's fully aware of.
But if you're standing at an unstaffed station, in the cold/dark/rain, with no other means of contacting 'the railway' and, 45 minutes after it was due, the last train hasn't shown up and there's no other information...
You still don't go telling passengers to use STP's and "Lineside" Phones or you get lots of people knowing they are there for all the wrong reasons; especially if that passenger turns out to be a disgruntled commuter who then tells all their commuter friends and the signaller get a barrage of calls every time a train is two minutes late.
If a TOC can not take responsibility for it's own customers, it is not their staffs right to fob it off onto a signaller who might actually be dealing with a massive problem.
Or is that not commonsense?
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And yet I would still say that is unacceptable from FGW / the bus drivers.
The vast majority of football fans are not violent, and I am willing to bet that a hell of a lot of those who were left stranded at GCR did nothing at all wrong.
If I was left stranded at a station for no reason other than being a football fan, then I would not be happy to say the least.
Bus Drivers can refuse reasonable right to travel. Can you imagine if they were forced to take them and a rowdy fan caused an accident with a bus full of dead?