ON SATURDAY thousands of people were shipped out to Shenfield station from Liverpool Street because of a signalling failure, and myself and my fellow Chelmsford City Councillor Mark Springett were caught up in the chaos.
We were appalled at the health and safety risks, with staff ill-equipped to cope with such a huge influx of people with nowhere to put them, nor any information about onward services to various destinations.
Ironically, we had just attended a course in central London (Facebook HQ) extolling the virtues of digital media as a form of communication, in particular, the benefits of Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
When we reached Liverpool Street there were no trains leaving and a message about a signal failure between Seven Kings and Romford.
We went and had a coffee to look at our options, i.e. the website and Twitter account for Greater Anglia, the train operator, and there was no information at all.
When we went back to the station we were told a train would be leaving in 15 minutes to Shenfield and to change there for Chelmsford.
At this point we had been contemplating going by Underground to Epping and finding our way from there, but we jumped on the train which, over the course of 15 minutes, became full.
At each station, the situation became more dangerous as people were packed on like sardines and tempers started to fray.
The lady next to me then had a panic attack through claustrophobia, and I managed to distract her enough to calm her down, and a relative found their way close enough to at least hold her hand.
After an hour on the train, we stopped just outside Shenfield station and were told the platform was too overcrowded to let us off. At this point messages on Twitter were coming through with people's concerns for safety and the lack of information for passengers.
When we eventually got off the train it took 25 minutes to get off the platform, which was a serious health and safety risk. People on the edge of the platform were completely reliant on the calm of others, as they could so easily have toppled onto the track if anyone had pushed through.
At this point there was one visible member of staff who had no information about ongoing services, just that everyone needed to go onto Platform 2. Anyone who has young, elderly, disabled or vulnerable relatives or friends must have been terrified at this situation, and I am just thankful that there were no serious injuries, or worse.
There was no sign of any emergency planning, and at this point, I feel the police should have been involved in crowd control. From this point, we left the station to get a lift to Chelmsford, but met some people outside the station who were visibly shaken by the experience.
The staff at Shenfield were completely overwhelmed as so many people were just herded there to get them out of Liverpool Street. There was complete lack of communication to them by Greater Anglia and, indeed, to passengers.
Had we known of the chaos ensuing at Shenfield, we, and many others would have made the informed decision to take a different route, but with the complete lack of information the situation was compounded.
I sincerely hope Greater Anglia listen to rail-users' concerns to ensure this situation doesn't happen again. As a priority, the improvements to the rail service need to include better communication to passengers.
Linda Mascot
Councillor
Goat Hall Ward
Chelmsford City Council
