1,800 people evacuated from Thameslink trains after hours in 34C heat due to fault between Herne Hill and Blackfriars

by ianjm

7 comments

  1. I like to think I’m a fairly calm and resilient person, but this would be the end of me.

  3. I was actually on the train in that photo.

    We came to a stop just outside Loughborough Junction because of a fault with the train leading to power failure. Then we sat there for ages (maybe two hours?) while they tried to fix it. First just the driver and then engineers. Apparently it was a problem with a shoe (I assume the electric pick up from the third rail).

    Eventually they decided to evacuate the train, which was a relief given the air conditioning had failed. It was very unpleasant on board.

    They actually did a pretty good job of communicating, mostly over the announcement system and then with a worker going up and down the train once the batteries went flat.

    Everyone seemed to behave pretty well, but the lady giving us instructions said they were having problems because someone had gotten out of a following train.

    You have to climb down a ladder to get to the track, it was a bigger drop than I thought and then it was around 100m to the station. There were loads of police and fire brigade helping, which was a relief as I had about 45kg of luggage for me and my pregnant wife which wasn’t fun.

    They had water for everyone on the platform, but then basically told people they were on their own.

    So 0/10 for the breakdown, 9/10 for how they handled it and 4/10 for onward care.

    Missed my bloody flight too.

  4. They will probably get a rejection on their 50% refund since its been late for less than 2 hours.

  5. What a day for this to happen. I hope they were given enough water and things to help with cooling down.

  6. Thameslink.. no surprise there.. have used the line for the last 25 years, it’s always been dire

  7. Always something with public transport. If it is too cold, it doesnt work properly and if it is too hot the same. While at the same time – other countries are a lot better at extremes.

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