Video report, from
the BBC» :
Stranded train commuters blast delays
Travellers who were stranded for hours after a train broke down have criticised the way the incident was handled.
About 15 people broke open the doors of the First Capital Connect Service to Cambridge from King's Cross when it stopped outside Foxton, near Cambridge.
They walked back along the track to the station, a distance of 500 metres.
The remaining passengers were locked on board by a rail official.
News report, from
the BBC:
Passenger anger over stuck Cambridgeshire train
Passengers who were stuck on a broken down train from London to Cambridgeshire have spoken of the "absolute chaos".
The First Capital Connect Service to Cambridge from King's Cross stopped outside Foxton, near Cambridge, shortly before 1700 BST on Friday.
Some of the 300 passengers forced open doors and walked down the track while others remained and were locked in.
More than 800 passengers were left stranded, one commuter said.
The train broke down due to problems with overhead power cables.
A First Capital Connect (FCC▸ ) spokesman said two trains were brought alongside to evacuate the train through the cab door.
One took about 100 passengers six miles back to Royston in Hertfordshire at about 1830 BST and the second took another 274 people at about 1945 BST.
But passengers said because trains arriving in Royston were being cancelled, about 800 people were left at the station.
British Transport Police officers were called to the scene to deal with crowd management.
Jon Thompson, 23, who commutes every day from King's Lynn to London, said: "I was there for three hours, it was a scene of absolute chaos with rail staff refusing to help deal with the situation. The police did not arrive until two hours after the first train was cancelled. One of the replacement buses drove straight at a group of people, myself included. The driver seemed to flip and just started shouting and screaming after he couldn't squeeze the bus past all the people waiting, and we couldn't move anywhere. So instead [he] turned his wheels, pointed them at us and drove to within two inches of our legs in an attempt to get us to move, with others having to jump into a bush behind us to get out of the way."
FCC said it had put on 28 buses to transport people, but people at the station said in three hours there had been no more than eight buses.
FCC spokesman Roger Perkins said: "There was extreme congestion at Royston because so many people were trying to get home from the station where our northbound services had to terminate. In addition to our normal team of staff at Royston we sent an additional team in support. We take allegations such as this [the bus driver's actions] extremely seriously and would ask the passenger to contact us directly so we can investigate without delay."
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