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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Tom Davidson

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.

Did you suffer from transport hell today? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk

Two men seen speaking to each other are both soaked through with sweat (@jack7moss /Twitter)
Passengers were left sweltering because the air conditioning was either not working or not switched on (@jack7moss /Twitter)

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.

The conditions on the LNER train were described as 'inhumane' (@jack7moss /Twitter)
A man is desperately fanning his baby trying to keep them cool in the extreme weather (@jack7moss /Twitter)

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".

Passengers appear to be desperately trying to find out what is going on with their transport (@jack7moss /Twitter)
One man collapsed after he was helped off the train by police (@jack7moss /Twitter)

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".

London Euston this evening (@Steadfosho /Twitter)

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.

Commuters stuck after severe disruption on East Midlands and Thameslink services (PA)
Cramped passengers on an LNER train which was forced to a stop near Peterborough (Vicki Newman)

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.

"We are sorry that some passengers are experiencing uncomfortable conditions and inconvenience.

"Our teams are working flat-out to fix the issues as quickly as possible and get people on the move."

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