Arctic challenge

Desperate passengers abandon Southeastern trains stranded as a result of the severe weather conditions.

Southeastern’s communications with its passengers will be investigated, Managing Director David Statham told RAIL on March 7.

At 1925 on March 2, responding to a question, the official Twitter handle said: “What the f* is going on is a number of people forced the doors open and decamped onto the tracks so we had to turn the power off. Until emergency services give us the all clear and tells us everyone is safe, we can’t run trains.”

In the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report into the Kentish Town incident on May 26 2011, published a year later, it states: “Effective, accurate and frequent communication is necessary to minimise the risk of passengers detraining when it is not safe to do so.”

Social media users called for the team to be fired.

Statham said: “People were operating under extraordinary situations. We will look at communications and see what happened. The aim was to keep people on the train.”