A WOMAN who was on the train that ended with passengers being locked into the platform at Oxenholme spoke of her 'nightmare' journey.

The Avanti West-Coast train that got into Oxenholme station was so delayed that by the time it arrived, the staff had left and the passengers were padlocked in.

Some took to jumping over a nine-foot-high fence to get off the platform. 

One of the passengers left stranded on the platform was Rhiannon Neale, a 26-year-old campaign manager from Kendal who was returning from Manchester. 

Rhiannon said: "The return was supposed to be a direct train from Manchester to Oxenholme, but we were told that train was cancelled so I had to get a train which changed at Preston.

“At Preston, there were crowds of passengers trying to get to Glasgow and three times we were all put on trains which didn’t go anywhere and had to get off again. It was absolutely heaving.

“There were no announcements on the trains, but we heard one on the station platform

“And after about 40 minutes wait, we finally got one which left eventually, then spent 15 minutes stuck at Lancaster while they found a new driver.

“We got to Oxenholme at 11.45. There were no staff. They had all gone home and locked up both the gates.

“One man managed to climb over the gates, but some of the passengers were quite elderly and there were a couple of children.

“The police were called and, in the meantime, the train driver got off the train and said the only solution was for us to get back on the train and she would let us off again at Penrith and we could all get taxis back.

“We all refused. There was quite a lot of swearing and angry shouting as we were all exhausted and it was after midnight by then.

“It wasn’t her fault, she was just trying to solve the problem. 

"Luckily, a National Rail worker doing maintenance work up the track had a key and let us all out." 

Ms Neale said she would be claiming a refund. Avanti West Coast apologised to the passengers and said that they were investigating the situation.