Inquiry after Avanti passengers have to scale 7ft spiked fence to leave station

theguardian.com:

One of the UK’s worst performing train operators has launched an investigation after passengers had to scale a 7ft spiked fence to leave a station when staff locked up early.

The Avanti West Coast train from London was 100 minutes late arriving into Oxenholme on Tuesday night, by which time station staff had locked and left for the night, passengers said. Some resorted to climbing the fence in scenes described by the local MP, Tim Farron, as “an unacceptable farce”.

Avanti told the MP it took the incident “very seriously” and promised to investigate.

Several people on board the delayed 19.30 from Euston say the train was soon running so late that they were told the service would not stop as scheduled at Oxenholme, the nearest station to the Lake District.

Instead, passengers were told to stay on until Penrith, where they could get a taxi for the hour-long car journey back to Oxenholme.

But when the train reached Oxenholme, it stopped after all, leaving passengers on the platform of what turned out to be a closed station. Passengers believe that station staff had been told the final service of the night was not going to stop and thought they could safely go home.

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Farron said some passengers climbed the 7ft spiked gates and fences surrounding the station to get out. There was also concern they