Rail chaos as passengers stuck on trains for hours

Listen to this article

Network Rail has said a cable theft attempt is the likely cause of the signalling problems last night that let to hundreds of passengers being stranded for up to 5 hours on South West Trains.

Services were stopped outside Woking in Surrey which led to many passengers climbing out of trains and walking down tracks to get home.

This lead to other trains being delayed longer as power had to be turned off as a safety measure.

One passenger who took the 18.39 service to Winchester and arrived at 00:30 after being stuck on a train with no water or food.

She said the train was stationary for almost 4 hours before it started moving again and she was able to get home.

Passengers described the delay as the worst they had ever experienced.

Many passengers who jumped from the stationary trains faced angry police when they reached the gates to Woking station.

A South West Trains spokesperson said:

“I would like to sincerely apologise for the level of disruption many of you would have experienced throughout the past week.

“On Thursday evening, further signalling problems in the Waterloo and Woking areas resulted in a significant amount of delays.

“Working with Network Rail, we have endeavoured to minimise the impact of these problems, although this is of little consolation if you have been affected by one or more of these events.

“Please accept my apologies for what has been an exceptionally challenging week.”

5 COMMENTS

  1. This, and the incident at Kentish Town, highlight the need for a faster response during such events, either to get trains moving or to get able bodied passengers detrained safely to prevent massed egress onto the track.

    The current lack of such contingency plans needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

ORR review leads to 50% reduction in maximum fees for ticket refunds

New rules will mean that from 2 April the maximum fee that train operators and ticket retailers can charge...

More like this...