Scarborough woman 'surprised' as train passengers evacuated onto active railway tracks after 'brakes failed' near Seamer

A Scarborough woman has spoken of her surprise after she was evacuated from a train near Seamer "after the brakes failed".
Passengers being evacuated from the train near Seamer and onto the active railway tracks. (Photo: Kelly Turner)Passengers being evacuated from the train near Seamer and onto the active railway tracks. (Photo: Kelly Turner)
Passengers being evacuated from the train near Seamer and onto the active railway tracks. (Photo: Kelly Turner)

Kelly Turner was returning from an overnight work trip in Peterborough when she got as far as York to Seamer where "everything seemed absolutely fine."

"All of a sudden we stopped and all the passengers kind of looked at each other like 'how bizarre'," Ms Turner said.

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The train continued to start and stop for the next 20 minutes before the conductor announced that there was a problem with the brakes, Kelly said, and she was then forced to sit on the train for the next three hours.

Passengers were moved into first class and shared water, cake and biscuits but were later made to evacuate the train and onto the active tracks after "nothing worked".

"In the end, they contacted the police who came and guided us off the train with all the other staff and directed us walking down in the dark on the train track," Ms Turner said.

Police guided the train's passengers along the tracks to a refuge point where they waited for taxis to transport people to Scarborough town centre, where the train was supposed to terminate.

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Kelly, who said the whole ordeal was "tiring and frustrating", was relieved to have been on board "one of the newer trains not one of the really old ones" and conceded that the trip was "a bit of a disaster".

"We all managed to get home and nobody was hurt. I really felt for one young lad who had only got on at Seamer, it was just a massive inconvenience really.

"I was little bit surprised that one of the new trains had broken down," she added.

Kelly said she finally made it home by 9pm, three hours later than her scheduled 6pm arrival at Scarborough Railway Station.

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A spokesperson for TransPennine Express said: "We apologise to customers who travelled on board this service on March 30 and thank them for their patience while our engineers carried out some essential repair work.

"This particular train developed a fault which had the effect of applying the brakes automatically every time the train speed exceeded 5mph. Our engineers knew that fixing this would take some time, and so we made the decision to safely escort those on board the train to the station.

"Anyone who was delayed by 15 minutes or more by this incident is entitled to delay repay and more information can be found on our website."

The Scarborough News contacted British Transport Police for comment but did not receive a reply.

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