When it comes to enduring a disastrous train journey, people have their own ways of coping. Some turn to the onboard shop for mini bottles of wine, while others find solace in forming new connections amidst the misery. Unfortunately, there are those who face even worse luck, resorting to desperate measures like using empty Pringles pots as makeshift toilets or scaling over spiked fences after arriving at a closed station due to extreme delays.
However, when comedian James Nokise found himself stuck on an 11-hour journey from London to Edinburgh on Monday night, he chose to live-tweet the entire ordeal. Despite Twitter’s decline in popularity since Elon Musk’s involvement, it proved to be the perfect platform for a captivating short story filled with last-minute cancellations, hordes of passengers vying for taxis, and a Red Bull-infused cab driver who seemed to be driving from Preston to Edinburgh for the very first time.
Nokise boarded the Avanti West Coast service from London Euston to Edinburgh at 4:40 PM, expecting to arrive at 10:21 PM. Everything seemed fine until the Pendolino train was approaching Preston and Nokise received an email informing him that his own train had been canceled. And so, he embarked on a social media storytelling masterpiece.
It’s quite difficult to explain what happened tonight because it’s still ongoing, but here’s the story: At 4:40 PM, I hopped on a train from London to Edinburgh. It was comfortable and peaceful. Little did I know, it was too good to be true…
About 10 minutes later, the train manager came on the speaker, claiming that they had been informed by passengers (!) that the train had been canceled and they were going to investigate because everything appeared to be in order.
Shortly after, they confirmed that the “rumors were true” and the train had indeed been canceled. It would terminate at the next stop: Preston. Now, you might wonder, “Where is Preston?” Well, the answer lies only in the knowledge of God and Northerners, as even the Scots weren’t entirely sure.
All the passengers were ordered to disembark at Preston and wait for a train to Glasgow, which would at least bring Nokise to the correct country, if not the right city. However, disappointment struck once again. “It turned out that train was full, so as we arrived, it left. It was around 8 PM, and they told us to wait for the next train… which would arrive at 9:42,” Nokise wrote.
In search of sustenance, Nokise discovered that all the cafes in Preston Station, except for a single coffee stall, had already closed at 9 PM. The coffee stall decided that a platform filled with a couple of hundred people didn’t require food or hot drinks. Little did they know, at 8:50 PM, the train they were waiting for was canceled.
More bad news followed. They discovered that there were no more trains heading further north after that and, even more thrilling, no one had any future information. Some stared at the screens, others lined up to ask the lone ticket booth worker the same question on everyone’s minds. But nobody had a clue.
Finally, around 9:20 PM, some news came in: Alternative transportation had been arranged. A bus? A supplementary train? Maybe even horses? Unfortunately, no. Taxis. For hundreds of people. To a city that was a three-and-a-half-hour drive away.
At this point, Nokise asked his readers to estimate the bill Avanti West Coast would be slapped with for this spectacle of taxis. The actual amount remains unknown, but based on online quotes stating that a journey from Preston to Glasgow or Edinburgh costs at least £277, the bill for just 75 cabs would exceed £20,000.
Nokise ended up sharing a taxi with three other gentlemen who attempted, to no avail, to convince the driver to drop them off at their respective destinations. After all, the driver was being paid a fixed rate and wasn’t constrained by railroad tracks like a train. The driver didn’t budge, but he did stop to purchase two cans of Red Bull “just to be safe.” One of the passengers even treated himself to a late-night ice cream.
They were halfway there when each passenger received an email notifying them that they were entitled to a full refund. Finally, at 3:20 AM, Nokise arrived at Edinburgh Waverley.
In a similar twist of fate, a group of 50 schoolchildren and their teachers from Greenfaulds High School in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, found themselves stranded at Preston Station on Monday due to the same track issue. The teachers took to Twitter, appealing for help as they couldn’t leave groups of twelve-year-olds alone in taxis. “A staff member has said we are effectively stuck here,” they tweeted at Avanti.
Eventually, they managed to organize their own coach and even bought 60 portions of chips in Preston to keep the children fed while they waited. They finally arrived back in Cumbernauld at 2:30 AM.
A spokesperson for Avanti West Coast offered an apology to the affected customers, acknowledging the disruption caused by the three-hour closure of the west coast mainline due to a track defect. They expressed empathy for the frustrations experienced by the passengers and assured them that compensation would be provided. They urged anyone affected by the disruption to contact them through the usual channels.
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