Train passengers suffer 11-hour nightmare journey from London to Edinburgh
Train passengers attempting to travel from London to Edinburgh wereforced to endure an “insane” 11 hour journey when they were kicked off the train and told to get taxis home.
Stand-up comedian James Nokise got on the service to the Scottish capital yesterday afternoon but at around 7.20am got an email saying it had been cancelled - while it was still moving. Shortly afterwards the driver confirmed it was terminating in Preston but another train was due to Glasgow shortly afterwards.
However, the Glasgow-bound train was full so left Preston as Nokise and his fellow passengers arrived. They were told to wait for the next train, which ended up also being cancelled. As a result Avanti West Coast organised a fleet of taxis to transport people home. Also aboard the service and waiting to get home was a group of 50 12-year-old schoolchildren from Greenfaulds High School, Glasgow. Their five teacher escorts eventually organised a coach to transport them on.
The taxi which carried the group to Edinburgh (@JamesNokise/Twitter)
The passengers took more than 11 hours to reach their destination (@JamesNokise/Twitter)Nokise shared his nightmare journey on X, formerly known as Twitter, which was viewed more than two million times. He wrote: “At 4.40pm I jumped on a train from London to Edinburgh. It was comfy, it was quiet. In hindsight, too good to last.
“It turned out there were no more trains north after that and, excitingly, no forthcoming information. Some people stood staring at the screens. Some people queued to ask the one ticket booth worker the same question everyone else was. No-one knew anything.
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“Around 9.20pm news came down: alternative transport had been arranged. Bus? An extra train? Horses? No. Taxis. For hundreds of people. To a city three-and-a-half hours away.”
At 10.30pm he was in the final group of travellers to get in a cab, describing the situation as “ridiculous”. The comic wrote that shortly after midnight “our cabbie decided to change lanes without indicating and almost crashed into a mini-van overtaking him”.
Nokise expressed sympathy with the cabbie – who stopped to buy two cans of energy drink – as “it is late, it’s a dark highway and he’s driving a city black cab not meant for this road”.
He added: “Perhaps, just possibly, throwing money at cab drivers and getting them to drive several hours in the middle of the night might not be the best contingency plan for train companies to have.”
After being dropped off at Edinburgh Waverley station at around 3am, he had to take another taxi to his accommodation. In his final post on the trip, he wrote at 3.30am: “Thanks for being on this journey with me Twitter.
“A truly insane odyssey. Five hours late, 11 hours after I jumped on the train. I’m going to have a shower and eat something. Let’s never do this again.”
During the taxi journey, Nokise received an email from Avanti West Coast informing him he would receive £70 compensation, which was how much his ticket cost. School staff from Greenfaulds posted on social media: "Avanti, we've been stuck at Preston since around 630pm with 50 12 year olds. It's now 10.08pm. We've just been informed that there is no way of getting us home to Glasgow, as we can't send kids alone on taxis. A staff member has said we are effectively stuck here.
"Thankfully, we have been able to resource, on our own, a coach to take us home. If we had not, we would have 50 young children abandoned on the streets of Preston once the station closes. Apologies from your wonderful staff here are kind but not enough. Very poor."
Another person said on X, formerly Twitter: "I live in Lancaster, have two daughters that live in London. Trains being cancelled at Preston, whilst already on them are a very regular occurrence. On the West Coast mainline, crews change at Preston, but regularly no crew available, so train cancelled. "
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson confirmed a train defect had caused the closure of the line. They added: “We apologise to our customers who were caught up in last night’s disruption. The closure of the West Coast Main Line for over three hours due to a track defect had a significant impact on our services, with trains and train crew unable to work our planned timetable resulting in cancellations of services north of Preston.
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“Whilst alternative transport and overnight accommodation was sourced for most of those impacted we fully understand the frustrations of those customers whose journeys were affected, and we are extremely sorry for this. Anyone who was affected by last night’s disruption will be entitled to compensation and are urged to get in contact through our normal channels to process their claim.”
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