Great Western Coffee Shop

On 5th Feb 2019, train 1C89 (1633 Padd to Exeter) was declared a failure and CAPED at Pewsey.

All PAX were turfed off the train and onto the platform which is only partially covered with a short section of canopy and the waiting rooms are closed at that time of day.

Looking at various tweets on twitter, passengers turfed off the train were not best pleased at having to wait around in the cold and rain for over an hour!

It would seem good customer relations to find some way to get the waiting facilities (and presumably toilets) open for the waiting time in these situations. Is there not an emergency local authorised keyholder?

Pewsey is peculiarly distant from other stations and not easily driven to from any of them ... so there could be sense in having a local backup in place. The regular GWR person based there - but for an early rather than a late shift - does a superb job when he's on duty  and I suspect would pop down to the station beyond the call of duty if alerted and available.

There was talk last October of appointing (? volunteer) station ambassadors at unstaffed stations in Wiltshire.  "Soon" was the word, but in railway terms "soon" hasn't progressed yet.

Good job they weren't coming through the Severn Tunnel and dropped off at the first station in England. That's really bleak, and a long wait for the next stopping train!

Presumably the failure was such that the train could be moved but only without passenger. Wouldn't it have ben  sensible to keep the passengers on the train and wait for the rescue train to be a couple of sections away. You May hold up some stone trains  but they would clear in front of the rescue train .