On another forum, someone who was stuck on one of the trains commented that staff were just walking past the carriages not attempting to convey any information to those stuck on board, which compounded the frustration.
Railway staff will complain about the people who got off the trains because we don’t have a customer focussed railway in any way shape or form. Staff are 300% safety focussed and will expect passengers to spend an indefinite amount of time on the carriage with no food, water or toilets.
It’s simply unacceptable for 7 trains (1000-5000 people) to get stuck on an extremely busy and well-funded part of the railway network in our capital city and there not be an army-style, rapid-response team dispatched to help the vulnerable. Senior management know that the British will just put up and shut up - we should be much more American in these situations.
A report will be produced, “lessons will be learnt”, then the gradual degradation of our railway will continue.
Edit: for context, regarding high expectations: a 23 minute journey in rush hour on this route is around ÂŁ27 ($34)
Off topic, but the phrasing of the headline[0] caught my attention. Shouldn't it be, "Thousands stranded in dark for hours as London trains see power cut"? Is this not as clear cut as I'm thinking? Maybe it's a British English thing?
[0] In case it changes for any reason, it's currently, "London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours".
“New”
That rail line, and Ladbroke Grove in particular, dates back nearly 200 years.
> Singer James Blunt and TV star Rachel Riley were caught up in the carnage
Carnage? I think the Metro staff need to borrow a dictionary.
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I think there's some rather below-the-belt plagiarism going on here:
Metro:
The rush hour service lurched to a stop last night and left passengers onboard the crowded carriages for hours, as the driver drip-fed what little information they had to passengers.
Eventually, the battery backup running the heating and lighting ran out, and those on board were left in darkness for another hour and a half until the evacuation came.
Commuter Mikey Worrall described the train as "lurching to a stop" and then a long, several-hour wait in semi-darkness as the driver drip-fed what little information they had through to passengers.
Eventually, the battery back-up running the train's heating and light services ran out, and passengers were left in darkness for another hour and a half until they were evacuated from the train.And they want to move everything to run on electrical power (cars, heating), pure madness.
Btw, I've just had a half-hour power-cut here in downtown Bucharest, it was fun getting up all those stairs with two bags of groceries but at least I hadn't got stuck in the elevator.
Similar problems in Spain with trains. Third event in the last 12 days [1,2,3]. After a 2023 with a chain of problems that normally don't occur
Sabotage would be my first candidate. Too much coincidences and deja-vues floating around.
[1] Nov 26 2023: "Traffic cut off between Atocha and Recoletos. 37 passengers evacuated after the convoy derailed"
[2] Dic 5 2023: "Another derailment on the Madrid CercanĂas cuts the Recoletos tunnel and causes significant delays"
[3] Dic 8 2023: "Third departure from the track of a train at Atocha station"
Looks like something directly copied from the Catalonian independentist playbook. This is very rare on Madrid, but small incidences designed to cause delays and chaos were not uncommon near Barcelona a few years ago.
London events may, or may not fall in the same category, but... yep; same day. Suspicious.
> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours.
It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out".
Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, and it's not without danger, but given the choice between walking over some slippery rocks and spending 4 hours without access to a toilet, I know which I'd prefer.