Network Rail chief exec was trapped on practice with 982 others
- Travellers reported being caught in darkish, chilly carriages for greater than three hours
- Singer James Blunt & TV presenter Rachel Riley amongst these stranded
- Around seven trains stopped shifting after overhead electrical cables have been broken in west London
Network Rail‘s CEO was one in every of a whole bunch of passengers stranded in trains for hours on Thursday night time.
Chief govt at Network Rail, Andrew Haines, stated he was trapped in a practice together with his son and 982 others.
Travellers reported being caught in darkish, chilly carriages for greater than three hours simply outdoors Paddington Station that night time, together with TV presenter Rachel Riley and singer James Blunt who tweeted: ‘Been caught someplace outdoors Paddington for near 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine.’
Around seven trains operated by the Elizabeth Line, Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway (GWR) stopped shifting after overhead electrical cables have been broken in West London.
The subsequent day, Mr Haines, 57, criticised his firm’s security procedures and customer support.
Chief govt at Network Rail, Andrew Haines was additionally left in limbo on the practice service
Officials help passengers to get down from a practice caught on the Elizabeth Line after broken overhead cables blocked railway traces in London
He stated: ‘None of us would have needed our buddies or household to have needed to undergo it.
‘By coincidence, my son was on the identical practice as me together with 981 different folks and offered ample suggestions through our household WhatsApp group.
‘My heartfelt apologies to anybody caught up in final night time’s issues.
‘I intend to make use of my very own painful expertise in committing to enhance how we ship for our clients and help our colleagues, particularly when issues go unsuitable.’
‘Yesterday night was not one in every of our best moments.’
The father, who additionally leads the Great British Railways Transition Team – which goals to enhance and simplify practice journey, added: ‘As an business, we let down hundreds of passengers after a vastly disruptive incident simply outdoors of Paddington station.
Network Rail’s CEO, Andrew Haines stated: ‘I intend to make use of my very own painful expertise in committing to enhance how we ship for our clients and help our colleagues, particularly when issues go unsuitable.’
Passengers waited inside a practice caught on the Elizabeth Line for over three hours
‘For as soon as I had the ache of experiencing it first hand, each as a buyer and as a colleague trying to help others in a testing circumstance.
‘It wasn’t nice and I had the good thing about being with a fantastic crew on a practice with auxiliary energy.
‘We failed as a system.
‘Too many particular person actors seeing threat from their very own perspective meant it was more durable than it ought to have been to get issues performed while sustaining security.
‘Multiple self-evacuations, due to the tempo at which we have been in a position to transfer and even entry trains, can’t be thought to be good security observe.
‘Lastly, we now have gone backwards on customer support. Tools to take care of passengers that I’d have used as a station supervisor in 1987 – earlier than I’d even seen a cell phone – weren’t accessible and we have been hardly nice at it then.
‘We can do higher than we did final night time once we take clients’ respectable considerations severely.’
