Martin Lewis vents anger at packed train
MARTIN Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, has slammed East Midlands Railway for its “disgraceful” service.
The ITV star prompted a response from EMR’s X account, formerly Twitter, after taking a train from London to Sheffield.
The BBC Sounds podcast host said that “every seat” was taken, as well as “every standing space”, adding that “scores” were left sitting in the train’s corridors.
He guessed that there were 500 people on the train at the time and noted that there was only one working toilet.
Taking to X on Monday, The Martin Lewis Money Show host wrote: “Dear @EastMidRailway, this train (London to Sheffield) is disgraceful. Every seat taken, every standing space taken, scores sitting in mid train corridors so I guess 500 people are on it - and only one working toilet at one end - people must crawl over each hundreds to reach it.
“It’s degrading, like something from the 19th century, and as I walked to the loo, apologising profusely, a number of people asked me to say something publicly about it. One of the reasons for this tweet.”
The financial guru then took one
MONEY SAVING EXPERT SAID THE TRAIN WAS PACKED WITH NO AVAILABLE SEATS OR STANDING SPACE AND ONLY ONE TOILET
more dig at the railway service, adding: “It seems I may owe an apology to the 19th century – many saying trains then were efficient, on time, and luxury.”
East Midlands Railway’s X account responded to Martin, saying: “Hi Martin, we are really sorry about your experience this afternoon.
“Vital infrastructure upgrades on the East Coast Mainline have resulted in a very large number of customers trying to travel with us rather than using the available rail replacement bus connections.
“We have strengthened services as much as possible and increased the number of staff to help manage this situation but clearly it has not worked as well as we would have liked, and we will work hard with the wider industry to learn from this.”
A fan has also commented on Martin’s original tweet, saying they were on the same train.
Andrew Horton stated: “I’m on the same train” before showing a video of a train leaving London St Pancreas for Sheffield with corridors full of people.