On Apr 5, 12:08*pm, TonySK14 wrote:
It seems to me like the OP states, that there does just to seem to be
any contingency plan for what is, unfortunatly, a regular event.

When I was an old fashioned guard at Manchester Piccadilly in the
early 80's the contingency manual for a blockage of all four lines
south of Rugby was like the Encyclopedia Brittanica and everybody new
what to do when depending on exact circumstances.

Also if all the managers and high grade supervisors had gone home then
a van was sent round to bring them all back again.

But then of course, those were the days when, if such an occurance
happened Piccadilly - Euston trains simply had a diesel hung on the
front and off they went vis the Dore curve and Derby to St Pancras.

Plus ca change (sorry I don't know how to do accents)

As others have said, it is the case that TOCs will honour each others'
tickets in such cases, but that's no use if someone doesn't say so.
Also, and with good reason, people don't necessarily trust such
announcements. There are too many stories repeated in the media where
people are told by the staff at one station, who work for TOC A, that
they can travel on TOC B's train from somewhere else in the event of
disruption, only to find that TOC B's staff deny all knowledge of this
and in the worst case, impose PFs.

My thoughts about such a contingency plan would be something like:

FGW and NR to have sufficient on-call staff available.
Frequent announcements to say that "we do not know the expected delay
but that train services are not expected to resume before a certain
time", so that people can leave the premises with confidence, and that
if such an announcement is made, to ensure that if the lines reopen
earlier, no last trains to any destination depart before the
previously-stated time.
Some form of texting system and emergency number, so that in the event
of such an incident, you can text, say, "Reading" to it and it will
update you, when the system has information, as to when the next train
to Reading is expected to depart.
FGW staff reps to go to Waterloo and Marylebone (both main line and
Underground stations) so that they can liaise with SWT and Chiltern's
staff on the spot about accepting tickets and to be a reassuring face
at an unfamiliar location.
FGW and NR reps at Paddington to have timetable info available about
alternative Chiltern or SWT services, or indeed the Oxford Tube coach
service.
FGW to arrange for taxis for passengers who cannot use the
Underground, eg MIPs.
FGW to run a DMU shuttle service to somewhere like High Wycombe to
allow pax to Oxford to travel that way using Chiltern services. The
works over Christmas showed that it is possible to run 2 tph between
Paddington and Banbury over the single line sections via Greenford.
Ideally, an FGW rep could be at High Wycombe to arrange shared taxis
for passengers wanting (for example) Reading.

Last but not least, there should be someone on the spot who has the
authority to make decisions. I recall an incident some years ago on
the ECML, when passengers were being directed to go via the MML to
Luton Airport Parkway and that buses had been laid on to Stevenage and
Hitchin. This was after FCC had taken over, so at least there were no
problems about ticket acceptance! Unfortunately, by the time I got to
LAP, the ECML had just been cleared and someone from "on high" had
ordered the buses to be stood down, although there were still about
40-50 pax at LAP wanting Hitchin. There was no-one at LAP who had the
authority to countermand the order from "on high" and we had the
farcical situation of a bus filled with pax wanting Hitchin, a driver
who wanted to take them there but no-one in authority to say so. It
was about 1830 and the station supervisor could not get through to
anyone as TPTB had all gone home! Eventually, the supervisor took it
on his head to instruct the driver to go to Hitchin, but I never heard
what happened next. I had wanted to write to FCC to compliment them on
the initiative of their employee at LAP but I was afraid that I might
drop him in it if they decided to accuse him of exceeding his
authority.