Passengers soaked in sweat after being trapped on ‘inhumane’ train in 40C heat
Passengers trapped in 'inhumane' conditions on a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train this evening were dripping with sweat.
With no air conditioning the stranded train – the 13.15 from Leeds to London – was stuck for hours with travellers becoming increasingly hot and distressed.
A video shows men, women and a young baby cramped in between carriages desperately trying to get cool with the train going nowhere.
The men appear to be soaked through and are drenched in sweat due to the extreme heat.
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One man is desperately fanning his baby trying to keep them cool as temperatures reached 38.1C in parts of the UK.
The heatwave today saw overhead lines near Peterborough get damaged – causing travel chaos for thousands.
Police officers were called to help dehydrated passengers from the train and one man collapsed on the tracks outside.
Jack Moss wrote on Twitter : "LNER are holding people in inhumane conditions. "
"People are passing out and being sick.
"It’s plus 40 degrees and we are being held with no way of getting off or knowing how long this is for".
He added: "People are passing out and if this keeps up someone will die".
He was on the train to London but eventually had to abandon public transport and get a taxi – which he promises to charge LNER for.
Another passenger called Dave Martin replied: "Disgraceful I was on this train totally dehydrated completely uncomfortable – kids and elderly suffering worse".
He wrote on his own Twitter account: "thanks to @LNER I now know if you sweat for long enough your fingers go wrinkly like being in water too long.
"Really didn’t need to discover that! should have got people off the train faster".
In reply to Jack, LNER wrote they were 'trying their hardest to resolve the situation' and that "this is absolutely not the service we aim to provide. I'm so sorry".
LNER, which runs inter-city services on the East Coast Main Line, warned at 5pm that customers should not attempt to travel today.
Tickets for today will be honoured tomorrow – but there have been warnings delays could continue.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said the disruption was particularly bad in London and the South East and warned it could continue until the weekend.
Robert Nisbet, director of nations and regions at the group, told the BBC 20 out of 26 train companies had been affected by cancellations and speed restrictions.
“We believe there could be roll-on impacts tomorrow, because many of the trains will be in the wrong places, many of the rail staff will be in the wrong places and it will take time to re-set, to stabilise the timetable again,” he said.
Network Rail's network services director Nick King said: "We have a number of heat-related incidents across the rail network this evening that are causing disruption to services.
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