Stranded on a train for 17 hours !

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

In Scotland according to a brief report on line.

Anyone got more details ? My concern is not so much the occurrence of the incident, such events do occur in extreme weather.

My concern is what conditions were endured by the passengers during this exceptional delay.
Working toilets ?
Food and drink ?
Heating and lighting ?

Have lessons been learnt from previous incidents.

[stuving]

Stranded, yes, but not in the middle of nowhere - it was at Huntly station. From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Storm Arwen: 'We spent 17 hours stuck on a train'

Passengers were left stranded on a train for 17 hours in Aberdeenshire after Storm Arwen caused major disruption to transport networks in north east Scotland.

The ScotRail service spent the night at Huntly station. A replacement bus service brought passengers to Aberdeen on Saturday morning.

Speaking to the BBC, passenger Mark Swinglehurst said: "It was cold but reasonably comfortable. The staff looked after us really well."

So it appears that staying on the train was a better bet than trying to get anywhere else under the circumstances.

Beware of headlines!

[broadgage]

A most inconvenient delay, but that is to be expected during extreme weather, and presumably passengers COULD leave if they so wished, but most did not.

What sort of train was it ? Some reports state that it "was a bit cold" but presumably SOME heating was available, or it would have been very cold, perhaps dangerously so.

BTW^▸ (by the way), in bad winter weather I go so far as to carry a blanket with me when travelling, for just this sort of eventuality. And bottled water in hot weather. Such precautions are OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website) under ordinary conditions, but sensible if extreme conditions are expected.

[stuving]

It's not 100% clear which train this was, as none is shown in the feeds as terminating at Huntly. But I think it was the 14:29 from Inverness due Aberdeen 17:06 (1A54). Both it and the next one (1A56) are last shown at Elgin, but I think the earlier one struggled on a bit further but was not detected. The bus is reported to have arrived in Aberdeen at 8 a.m. Saturday, which would be about 17 hours late.

Here is a more detailed report, from the Press and Journal via Railscot:

Passengers travelling on a train between Aberdeen and Inverness were left stranded for around 17 hours overnight due to Storm Arwen.

The train was stuck at Huntly railway station overnight, with around 70 passengers having been stranded for up to 17 hours.

Passengers have praised the staff on social who journeyed to the local supermarket for supplies in the hazardous weather to keep everyone comfortable for the long wait.

They managed to acquire water, sandwiches, snacks and even managed to source a kettle for tea/coffee.

Staff also arranged for a local baker to bring down bacon rolls and fresh pies.

Steve Tremlett charted the incident on his personal Twitter account, writing: “5hrs and counting stuck on a train in Storm Arwen” at around 8pm on Friday evening.

He confirmed the passengers arrived in Aberdeen by bus at around 8am on Saturday morning, saying: “We are off the train and on a coach to Aberdeen”.

I doubt there was any heating supplied, but there were plenty of other warm passengers ... RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) says this was 158732, and if it was only two carriages then it was at least moderately cosy. Certainly it was a good thing it did not battle onwards and stop at Gartly or Kennethmont.

[IndustryInsider]

Great to hear the staff did such a great job in challenging circumstances.

[TaplowGreen]

Great to hear the staff did such a great job in challenging circumstances.

Agreed, but surely they could have managed fillet steak with a glass of Port to follow?

[stuving]

Great to hear the staff did such a great job in challenging circumstances.

Agreed, but surely they could have managed fillet steak with a glass of Port to follow?

Probably not - the Gordon Arms is on the market again, and the restaurant appears to be closed at the moment.

[broadgage]

Great to hear the staff did such a great job in challenging circumstances.

Agreed it does sound as though the staff did all they reasonably could.
It is reported that they obtained a kettle for hot drinks. Presuming that this refers to an ELECTRIC kettle then that suggests that electricity was available either on the train, or in the station building.
Presumably on a 158 the engines would have been left running and provided some heat, not much I suspect when idling but better than nothing.  Not certain that a 158 can supply 2.4/3 kw at 240 volts for an electric kettle ? maybe just about from the cleaners socket.

[MVR S&T]

Additional team members have been drafted in from Orkney, Skye and the Uists as well as Melksham in Wiltshire.

From BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59504845

Why mention Melksham? perhaps the farthest away teams going to help out.

[grahame]

Additional team members have been drafted in from Orkney, Skye and the Uists as well as Melksham in Wiltshire.

From BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59504845

Why mention Melksham? perhaps the farthest away teams going to help out.

A major electric substation / base here, so I'm sure we have a large pool of skills.  Not sure how it works - big office and base yard just up the road from us (I should know - in my ward!).  Melksham is a town of largely unsung heroes and it's nice to have the odd mention ...

[ellendune]

Additional team members have been drafted in from Orkney, Skye and the Uists as well as Melksham in Wiltshire.

From BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59504845

Why mention Melksham? perhaps the farthest away teams going to help out.

A major electric substation / base here, so I'm sure we have a large pool of skills.  Not sure how it works - big office and base yard just up the road from us (I should know - in my ward!).  Melksham is a town of largely unsung heroes and it's nice to have the odd mention ...

The operator in Scotland is SSEN^» (Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks - website) - Scottish and Southern Energy Networks they are the distribution network operator (DNO^▸ (Distribution Network Operator)) in Scotland north of the Clyde/Forth valley as well as central southern England.  So naturally their first call for support from outside of Scotland would be from their southern network operations staff.