Trains chaos disgrace for bank holiday passengers travelling to Scarborough

What should have been a happy start to the bank holiday last Friday, for many families travelling to Scarborough turned into a nightmare.
Scarbororough's South bay basking in the sunshine on the Bank Holiday weekend . pic Richard PonterScarbororough's South bay basking in the sunshine on the Bank Holiday weekend . pic Richard Ponter
Scarbororough's South bay basking in the sunshine on the Bank Holiday weekend . pic Richard Ponter

Both the 2.47pm and the 3.47pm trains from York to Scarborough were cancelled.

Families with suitcases, small children, dogs; women with pushchairs; old people with luggage were given little information, shunted back and forth from platform 5 to platform 3, over a rail bridge or through packed tunnels.

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Children were in tears and parents and other travellers increasingly frazzled.

Eventually, a train left York to Scarborough at 4.30pm which was utterly crammed with upset and unhappy people.

Although there were apparently major issues further down the line that day, both east and west, the situation above could have been mitigated against.

A train set did become available much earlier that afternoon but was shunted along to another platform and parked to return to Liverpool.

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Instead of responding in a flexible manner which would have relieved the discomfort and inconvenience to passengers, the train company chose to take one of their trains out of service.

It was a disgrace the way bank holiday passengers travelling to Scarborough were treated. We should not have to put up with this.

Jean Flanagan

Scarborough