On Apr 5, 11:12*am, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:
Neil Williams wrote:
On Apr 5, 9:31 am, bob wrote:

It's not just a question of "damn the crime scene, get the trains
running", there are other railway lines and other ways of getting
there (eg via Waterloo, coaches).

And a passenger is ill-advised to act outside staff advice at that
time of night, as if they're then stranded you can be sure "it's your
own fault" will be the answer. *So there needed to be staff to decide
what to do and to confirm it to passengers.

Until those investigating at the scene have actually said, "okay, we've
finished now" all rail staff can do is offer guesses, though.

Information about alternative routes home could also be overtaken by
events - e.g. people being directed to H&C line trains by fGW staff
could find them cancelled because of overcrowding.

It's very hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all answer in these
circumstances, apart from "keep calm and carry on".

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. 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.

Robin