2 weeks Ago By Noora Mykkanen
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Passengers have blocked a train departure and accused staff for being ‘jobsworths’ for not letting them on – despite arriving too late. The feisty group of passengers caused a scene at Manchester Piccadilly station after they were not allowed to board the service following the final blow of the whistle. Footage shows a man blocking the Transport for Wales service on September 7 with one foot on the train step and another one on the platform, explaining passionately that ‘we are here at 9.
30pm and we are early.’ Lou Monrow and her mother Susan Hackett, who is a wheelchair user, were among the group who missed their train home by the skin of their teeth. The 34-year-old model said they had reached the platform to find the doors had been ‘turned off.
’ They spent 15 minutes arguing with the staff to be allowed to board the train they had bought tickets for. Footage shows other passengers waiting on board as the group argued. She said she was keen to get on as she was ‘hungry, it was getting cold and I just wanted to get my mum home safe.
’ Lou, who lives in Alsager, Cheshire, said: ‘They were jobsworths and should have let us on the train. ‘When we got to the train they turned the doors off.’ She said she ‘100%’ backed the man who started the protest and had his foot on the train door as ‘he just wanted to get home as well.
’ ‘They kept saying we’d missed the train but we hadn’t because it was right there. What are the train departure rules? Various train operating companies and even stations have their own rules, but thereis no law on train door closure times. The scheduled departure time is usually the time the wheels start moving.
The doors tend to close between one minute and 30 seconds before departure. For example at Birmingham New Street – UK’s busiest station outside London – train doors now close up to 40 seconds before departure ‘to help services leave the station on time,’ Network Rail said. Before November 10, the doors at the station closed 30 seconds before departure on Transport for Wales, London Northwestern Railway, CrossCountry and West Midlands Railway services.
‘I think they thought we were being aggressive but I don’t think that comes across in the video,’ Lou said. She claimed the staff told them to ‘go to the pub’ and wait for another train but ‘we couldn’t because we’d have had to buy another ticket.’ Lou said the staff ‘delayed the other passengers’ by arguing with them, defending the interaction as not ‘disrespectful but it was passionate.
’ After rewatching the video, Lou said she noticed her mum was ‘completely ignored in all of that conversation.’ ‘I wonder if it was because she’s in a wheelchair,’ she added. Eventually, the standoff ended.
She continued: ‘At one point they just opened the doors and we all got on so we were saying ‘what was all that about?’. ‘As long as you’re on the platform I think you should be allowed on. ‘I understand protocol and safety but it wasn’t just me and my mum.
There were five or six people there.’ She claimed they had arrived onto the platform five minutes before but she had been pushing her mum, adding that previously platform staff have stopped trains from leaving so she can board. The video sparked an online debate on who was in the right after Lou shared it on the social media platform with the caption ‘this is the most ridiculous thing in the entire world.
’ One user wrote along with a face palm emoji: ‘You missed the train.’ Lou responded: ‘I don’t think people no [sic] what logic is. Also why did the ticket people let us through?’ Another user pointed out that in the time spent on arguing ‘they could have all been on it and halfway to the next station.
’ Lou hit out at the critics, saying that ‘trolls don’t generally have empathy or life experience where they can put themselves in our shoes.’ More Trending A headteacher took her own life, now I’m scared it’ll happen to NHS staff too Woman released without charge after three found dead in care home Who is the oldest member of the Royal Family? Baby red panda chokes to death on its own vomit after getting scared by fireworks ‘I think people should mind their own business,’ she added. A Network Rail spokesperson told Metro : ‘We are sorry to the passengers for their experience.
The train operator companies have a policy in place where doors close up to 45 seconds before departure to make sure services run on time. ‘The passengers arrived as the train was part way through the train dispatch process and our station team were following protocol, advising they can’t board the train as it’s about to leave. Safety is our top priority, and we take every precaution to uphold it rigorously.
’ Transport for Wales declined to comment. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
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