Businessmen ‘wet themselves’ due to c2c delays ‘nightmare’
Passengers said c2c delays resulted in chaos at West Ham Station last night - Credit: Archant
“Chaos” on the c2c rail service resulted in businessmen wetting themselves as bodies blocked their path to the toilet.
Last night 11 services from Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street faced full or partial cancellations and five were delayed or running with reduced carriages between 7.30pm and 11pm.
Commuter Hannah Fisher, 35, told the London Evening Standard she caught the 10.49pm from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness.
She said passengers being crammed into four carriages rather than eight led to “mayhem”, with one man urinating in his trousers.
“I’ve never seen it like this in 15 years, I was horrified,” she said. “At Fenchurch Street the delays just kept popping up on the board and staff couldn’t or wouldn’t say anything.
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“When I managed to board it was mayhem.
“One man by the doors was trying to get through the crush but kept being pushed back, people couldn’t move to let him through.
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“In the end he just couldn’t hold it.
“Another chap in a seat got up and tried squeezing past but he couldn’t move.
“When he left that the man next to him said: ‘well those trousers will be going to the dry cleaners tomorrow.’”
At about 8pm last night, the c2c’s official Twitter account announced that a driver had been taken ill, before announcing eight cancellations, citing a lack of available train staff.
A c2c spokesman apologised to passengers for the disruption.
“We are very sorry for the disruption caused to our passengers last night, when there was a short-term increase in drivers unable to work because of sickness,” he said. “We used our contingency drivers to ensure we still ran the last trains and got everyone home.”
The London Evening Standard also reported rumours of an unofficial walkout by staff revolting over the service’s new timetables, with 26-year-old actor Ben Thorton telling reporters: “We heard rumours that six or seven drivers had gone missing.
“It was a nightmare.”
He described the scene at every station on the c2c route, which includes West Ham Station, as “chaos”.
The c2c’s new timetable was launched on December 13 last year and was aimed at increasing capacity by 3,000 passengers every morning.
