Help the Train Companies should give if you are stranded
It was disturbing to read Oliver Wright’s account in the Independent of being stranded at Orpington on an “engineering works” day. It’s not apparent why there were no trains running from Orpington at 2250 – even on a Sunday there would normally be a last train to Victoria at 2255 and a last train to Charing Cross at 2310.
Staff have a clear obligation to help passengers as set out in the National Conditions of Carriage:
43. Help from Train Companies if you are stranded
If disruption caused by circumstances within the control of a Train Company or a Rail Service Company leaves you stranded before you have reached your destination printed on or stored on your ticket, and the Train Company whose trains you are entitled to use is unable to get you to that destination by other means, any Train Company which is in a position to help will, if it reasonably can, either arrange to get you to that destination, or provide overnight accommodation for you.
We have asked Southeastern for their comments, and to tell us what steps are taken to ensure that their staff know what they are required to do in such circumstances.
I remember chatting with the taxi drivers at Preston once, when en route to Bolton on a Sunday and things were broken. Apparently some of them had taken passengers to Aberdeen at Virgin’s expense.
Of course, this was back in the days when the WCML was in total chaos. Somehow, I don’t see SouthEastern doing anything similar.