On a cold winter evening last December thousands of passengers were stuck on seven busy trains for several hours. Elizabeth Line, Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway services stopped moving after overhead electrical cables were damaged not far out from London’s Paddington station.

The boss of Network Rail, Britain’s national rail infrastructure manager, was a passenger on one of the trains. Andrew Haines, the Chief Executive – widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest railwaymen of his generation – was trapped in a GWR train, along with his son and 981 other people. The next day he issued a candid, heartfelt apology in which he went on to say, “I intend to use my own painful experience in committing to improve how we deliver for our customers and support our colleagues, especially when things go wrong.”

“Stranded train” incidents had been prompting growing concerns about the implications for passenger safety, welfare and customer experience. There were 75 cases in just two months at the end of 2023 – an average of just over one incident each day, each affecting at least two trains. (To keep this figure in proportion, it is worth noting that in Britain each weekday there are around 20,000 services which, between them, carry almost five million passengers.) A “stranded train” is defined as occurring where one or more trains come to a halt for two hours or more between stations.

EPF-member Transport Focus (the independent watchdog representing the interests of passengers in most of Britain and of users of the strategic road network in England) joined with the UK’s independent regulator, the Office of Road & Rail, to study passenger experience during four incidents in 2023 and make recommendations for improvement. They were supported in this work by the global business consultants, Steer. The results were published in August.

The sector now plans to review its guidance later this year. The Transport Focus/ORR study suggests that the sector’s revised guidance aims for passengers to be rescued (or to restart their journey) within 90 minutes of a train becoming stranded (unless there are clear advantages in their remaining on the train).

It also recommends that the rail industry carries out reviews in several areas including:

• Incident response roles and training programmes where sufficient emphasis should be placed on passenger welfare and customer experience, in addition to safety.
• Whether robust arrangements are in place to identify passengers with additional needs.
• Maximising communications tools to keep passengers on board stranded trains informed about what is going on.
• Strengthened arrangements to ensure a reliable supply of buses and taxis at short notice, as well as hotel rooms if it becomes difficult for passengers to complete their journey.
• Ensuring the availability of sufficient staff who can be called to any location required to assist with access to facilities at stations and, among other things, organising food and drink for passengers.
• Ensuring that emergency supplies, for example water and foil blankets, are held at strategic locations with processes in place to transport and distribute them at short notice.

Senior leaders from infrastructure managers and railway undertakings are to be brought together later in 2024 to discuss the sector’s approach to driving improvements, including how to incorporate lessons from any future incidents.

Christopher Irwin