On 5 Apr, 10:51, bob wrote:
The problem is the railways are not following a "keep calm, carry on"
approach, they are following a "pack up and go home" approach, leaving
passengers stranded. *There should be contingency plans for how to
deal with the closure of key points on the network, ready to act on
with half an hour's notice. *It should be clear to management within
half an hour whether the situation is a "open again in a few minutes"
or "closed for the rest of the evening" situation.

Don't agree. A suicide could be cleared up in 30 minutes, it could
take five hours (if the train couldn't be moved, for example), or any
time in-between.....they DO NOT know until the BTP give NR the
clearance - then they can start guesstimating. But the BTP, rightly in
my view - sorry - refuse to guesstimate saying it'll take as long as
it takes.

Your dealing with an horrific death here, not a broken down train.

*For management to
just sit on that information and neither pass it on, nor advise
passengers (who may have train-specific non flexible tickets) how to
go about getting home, nor give them advice on alternative routes that
are available, is bad management. *Just sticking a "we're really
sorry, your train is cancelled" message on the information display is
not a contingency plan, and it's not keeping calm and carrying on.

Yes, it is. The real problem is Joe Public's complete lack of patience
these days. Previously, they'd work it out for themselves that the
likely delay is a couple of hours, do I want to try a different route
or shall I wait - but with the advent of e-everything, they expect
instantaneous answers. Well, in this case, someone's life comes before
someone's trip home.

BTW - THIS PERSON LIVED LASST NIGHT......