After nine months of rail misery, passengers on Southern Railway last night (Thursday 16 February) faced a fresh obstacle.
At a time when new figures reveal more than a quarter of Southern services were delayed last year, yet more bad news struck. Not strikes, not signal failures, not a technical difficulty. A microwave on the line.
Services which passed through South Croydon were delayed and cancelled until the end of service for the day after a train hit the cooking appliance.
Unsurprisingly, a Twitter storm ensued.
@SouthernRailUK so do I get full delay repay for getting booted of a train 1/2 way home last night due to an errant microwave? Thanks
— Foxed (@IngersCrimster) February 17, 2017
how big is this microwave, must be massive as the next E.Grinstead train is now doing exactly the same thing
— James Johnston (@JamesJohnston_1) February 16, 2017
Delays and cancellation due to a train hitting a microwave oven. I'll give you points for originality @SouthernRailUK #southernfail
— Fran Barr (@franbarr) February 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/nodmonkey/status/832336263059501056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
What numpty threw a microwave oven on the train track in #SouthCroydon. #totalnumpty
— Ashley Ward (@ashward123) February 16, 2017
Mark Emmerson, 35, was on the train to East Grinstead when passengers suddenly had to get off. He said: “I was trying to get to East Grinstead and had to disembark at East Croydon.
“There were laughs of disbelief when we were told [about the microwave].
“The announcer said they were not sure how it was going to be cleared up. Someone in the carriage said ‘pick it up’.”
Southern Rail has issued an apology and the rail company made last night’s train tickets valid for bus travel.
