A woman has blasted ScotRail after a taxi mix-up at Edinburgh's Waverley Station meant she didn't get home until 3am.
The passenger, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she struggled to locate the taxi, organised by ScotRail staff, after her train home was cancelled due to poor weather conditions.
The train operating company has since apologised for those impacted by the cancelled service, telling Edinburgh Live they worked hard to find a resolution, including arranging alternative transport.
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The woman was due to board the 11.09pm train from Waverley to Motherwell via Carstairs on Friday, November 18, when the service was delayed and then cancelled at 11.15pm. Ten passengers were then told taxis would be arranged to take them home and were led to the back entrance on Calton Road.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live about the "disappointing" incident, the woman said that she was left standing on a deserted street after she couldn't find a taxi.
She said: "I regularly work in Edinburgh so I travel from Douglas in South Lanarkshire to Carstairs to get the train from there but I was having dinner in Edinburgh that night so I was due to board the 11.09pm service. It said the train was going to be delayed until just a few minutes after that time but then a marshal came and said the platform was changing.
"While we were moving platform he got another message saying it was cancelled but he said it means we'll all get a taxi to our door. I tried to clarify and say that I do not live nearby and that I live 25 minutes from Carstairs station but he said that would be fine. He took all our names, I was with another lady from Carstairs, but he didn't take our phone number.
"He then guided us towards the back entrance and said to wait until each taxi arrived then disappeared. Within half an hour, everyone with us got picked up apart from me and the lady I was with that lives near me. By midnight, everyone had gone but we assumed it had been delayed as we were so far away compared to the rest.
"We didn't want to risk going inside as my friend's phone had run out of battery so if the taxi did show up, I wouldn't be able to phone her or vice versa. It got to 12.40am and eventually we decided that she should go in and if the taxi did come, I'd hold it for us. But when she went back inside, there was no staff and only a cleaner. They seemed confused and said they'd go check with their manager and come back to us outside in ten minutes. 20 minutes later, nobody came back outside.
"By this time is was just after 1am and we were starting to panic as all the taxi's were passing us and asking where we wanted to go not knowing it was hours away. Nobody seemed to know anything about a pre-booked service from ScotRail. Although I know Edinburgh, the street we were on was secluded and there were drunk people passing so anything could have happened at that time in the morning."
The woman said that eventually, a kind taxi driver took her and the other lady back to South Lanarkshire and nearly a week on from the incident, they are yet to hear from ScotRail.
She said that as two women standing alone in the dark with phones and laptops, anything could have happened and they were both scared at one point.
She continued: "I tried calling the out of ours number for ScotRail but it cut off at midnight and the other 24-hour number just disconnected straight away so there was no way of contacting anyone at the company.
"Finally I got home at 2.45am after the taxi driver took us home. My husband was furious with the situation so he phoned up ScotRail the next day and demanded someone explained how this happened and made a complaint. After three or four hours they never got back to us with a complaint number and when we phoned back, they said they have a lot of jobs in the queue but my husband said my wife was abandoned in Edinburgh which is a failure in their duty of care.
"They have asked for my account details and a copy of the bill but we want to speak to someone about this to understand how it will be actioned to avoid a repeat in the future. It's not just about the money, it's about the inconvenience and the situation they put us in."
"The spot was really isolated and there were drunk people screaming so to be honest, if I was on my own, I would have burst out in tears and I was really thankful the other lady was with me otherwise I probably wouldn't have held it together."
Phil Campbell, ScotRail Head of Customer Operations, said: “We’re sorry to customers who experienced disruption to their journey on Friday night as a result of the extreme weather.
“Every effort was made to help customers complete their journey, which included arranging alternative transport.
“The passenger's husband has been in contact with us about his wife’s experience, and we will be in touch with them directly.”
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