Train of Disasters

Well, Fran and Gill got home ok on Sunday night but only just.

The train from Liverpool St Station - the Stansted Express - had to stop because of overhead problems at Cheshunt and they were told it wouldn't go any further. Ten carriages full of folk needing to get to the airport to catch flights. Some had already missed their check-in times by the time they were told it would go no further and most jumped off at the tiny station to form an impossibly long queue at a taxi rank that probably sees no more than two taxis at any one time. (The good folks at Cheshunt will forgive my ignorance if that assumption is a bit wild?)

The point being though that train companies show a complete and utter disregard for any passengers when this sort of thing happens. "It's not our problem", "It's not our fault", the best you can hope for is "You can claim your train fare back..."

Do they not have Risk Management at train companies I wonder? Presumably they do as far as health and safety goes, but they never seem to know what to do when a train breaks down or has to stop where it is for any length of time.

In mainline carriages where no windows open and you are totally reliant on the air conditioning that has gone off the guards still insist they cannot open doors even when it is so hot that smoke is coming from passengers' skin! "We'll sue you if you break that window" is the normal response.

Anyway, as the two ladies were getting somewhat worried and the time for their check-in to close loomed ever closer the decision was made that the train could, after all, carry on to Stansted. By which time Fran said there were not many more than two dozen passengers left on it. I wonder how many hundreds missed their flights?

Come on train companies - you should at least carry the phone numbers of all coach firms along your route, even if you leave it to passengers to pay for their coach trip.