The Office of Rail and Road says the rail industry must focus more on the safety, welfare and customer experience on passengers stranded on trains.
A new joint report by the ORR and Transport Focus finds that recovery plans must be created and implemented more quickly in stranded incidents – particularly when there is no power on the train. It points out that when batteries are exhausted, passengers could be without lighting, air-conditioning, heating or working toilets, quoting one passenger saying: ‘it was actually really hot and (…) because the power went off, obviously there was no sort of air flowing through the train at all.’
‘The evidence is mixed that the railway really grasps that delivering as good a passenger experience as possible in a stranded train situation contributes to safety, rather than is at odds with it,’ the report notes.
Of the 17 train operators engaged in the project, 14 agreed to facilitate introductions to passengers likely to have been on stranded trains, with 11 providing their stranded train protocols.
Greater support for onwards journeys for passengers after they have bee…
