A RAIL passenger has gone viral on social media after describing his “insane” 11-hour journey to Scotland – which ended at 3.30am after a “ridiculous” taxi ride.
Stand-up comedian James Nokise said he was among “hundreds” of people ordered off an Avanti West Coast train at Preston station in Lancashire on Monday night, with passengers apparently told of the cancellation via email even before staff on board.
The train company arranged for taxis to take the travellers to their Edinburgh destination, more than three hours away.
Nokise was driven to the Scottish capital with three other people in a black cab.
In a series of posts viewed more than 2.6 million times on social media platform X – formerly known as Twitter – he wrote: “At 4.40pm I jumped on a train from London to Edinburgh.
“It was comfy, it was quiet. In hindsight, too good to last.”
He explained that at 7.26pm he was among the passengers who received an email stating that the train was cancelled, which was “a surprise” as it was still moving.
Around 7:26pm I received an email that my train had been cancelled. This was a surprise because: a) I was still on a moving train b) there had been no announcement on the moving train
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
An announcement was then made that the service was terminating at Preston but another train to Glasgow was being held to take those onboard to Scotland.
But the Glasgow-bound train was full and left Preston as Nokise and his fellow passengers arrived.
They were told to wait for the next train, which also ended up being cancelled.
Nokise wrote: “It turned out there were no more trains north after that and, excitingly, no forthcoming information.
“Some people stood staring at the screens.
“Some people queued to ask the one ticket booth worker the same question everyone else was.
“No-one knew anything.
“Around 9.20pm news came down: alternative transport had been arranged.
“Bus? An extra train? Horses? No. Taxis. For hundreds of people. To a city three-and-a-half hours away.”
At 10.30pm he was in the final group of travellers to get in a cab, describing the situation as “ridiculous”.
Except we weren’t all going to Edinburgh, because it wasn’t an express train. Some were going Glasglow, some to Dundee, Carlisle, and other stops. But all of us queued to be taken away 3-7 people at a time. And if that sounds slow and ridiculous, it was. pic.twitter.com/2LusQ8rHwg
— James Nokise (@JamesNokise) September 25, 2023
The comic wrote that shortly after midnight “our cabbie decided to change lanes without indicating and almost crashed into a mini-van overtaking him”.
Nokise expressed sympathy with the cabbie – who stopped to buy two cans of energy drink – as “it is late, it’s a dark highway and he’s driving a city black cab not meant for this road”.
He added: “Perhaps, just possibly, throwing money at cab drivers and getting them to drive several hours in the middle of the night might not be the best contingency plan for train companies to have.”
The A72 is “a real motion-sickness nightmare of a road” which is “narrow, dark, full of turns and occasionally just dips,” he wrote.
During the taxi journey, Nokise received an email from Avanti West Coast informing him he would receive £70 compensation, which was how much his ticket cost.
After being dropped off at Edinburgh Waverley station at around 3am, he had to take another taxi to his accommodation.
In his final post on the trip, he wrote at 3.30am: “Thanks for being on this journey with me Twitter.
“A truly insane odyssey. Five hours late, 11 hours after I jumped on the train.
“I’m going to have a shower and eat something.
“Let’s never do this again.”
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “We apologise to our customers who were caught up in last night’s disruption. The closure of the West Coast Main Line for over three hours due to a track defect had a significant impact on our services, with trains and traincrew unable to work our planned timetable resulting in cancellations of services north of Preston.
"Whilst alternative transport and overnight accommodation was sourced for most of those impacted we fully understand the frustrations of those customers whose journeys were affected, and we are extremely sorry for this.
“Anyone who was affected by last night’s disruption will be entitled to compensation and are urged to get in contact through our normal channels to process their claim.”
