Lineside Fire - 26 May 11

I was on the first down service that was stopped by emergency NRN^▸ message shortly after leaving Tiverton. The TM^‡ explained the reason for the sudden stop, then explained that we would be going forward to the signal preceding the fire, and then told us that the fire involved LPG^▸ containers. So I was not surprised when we were told that we would be returning to Tiverton and terminating there.

The TM and customer host on that service were excellent - good info and complimentary teas and coffees.

We were on the mainline at the loops south of Tiverton and the following Penzance service had pulled up alongside us, in the loop. We eventually made our way back to Tiverton (thank you for reversible signalling) and detrained there. As the service I was on was an Exeter terminator, there were only about 50 people on it, so no great problem in looking after them. The staff at Tiverton were very good - asked everyone to remain in the hall and said they would advise about road transport when they had more information.

As an ex-FGW^▸ station manager, I was well aware of what would be going on behind the scenes. First Rail Support would have been asked to arrange coaches, and would be struggling to get any at 1900 on a Thursday evening in Devon.

There were two other HSTs^▸ south of Tiverton, both for Penzance/Plymouth. If these were also to set back to Tiverton, the staff there would have 800 plus customers to deal with. Thats 16 buses/coaches!

I'm not surprised that other services were terminated at Taunton, and that AXC^» was offloading its customers there. AXC pays GW^▸ to provide customer service at stations operated by FGW - they operate very few of their own - and seem entirely happy to dump a trainload of customers on a station such as Taunton. If there were another 500 customers there, thats another 10 coaches that would be needed. So thats 26 coaches needed immediately in the down direction. Lets say 20 were needed for up services, and its not difficult to realise why road transport is not a practical alternative in such circumstances. Which is why I get very annoyed by comments such as "so has no rail replacement been laid on?". Trains are mass movers - coaches and taxis cannot offer a replacement service at short notice.

My sympathies were with the station staff - maybe two at Tiverton and three or so at Taunton. Its asking a hell of a lot of station staff to handle such situations. No doubt on call managers were called out to assist - but they too have few options available.

I don't know how this was resolved - my mate drove up to Tiverton from Exeter to pick me up, so I was one of the first to get away. I can only empathise with the staff on the ground and reflect on the wisdom of my decision to retire earlier this year!