Broken air con leaves train 'raining inside'

A rail company has apologised after a faulty air conditioning system left water dripping on to passengers.

Carolyn Burke told the BBC she paid a "sky high" price for her East Midlands Railway (EMR) ticket from London to Derby on Thursday but ended up lending a woman her umbrella because it was "raining in the carriage".

Another passenger said she had experienced the same issue on a separate EMR service travelling out of London, saying water dripped all over her and her partner while they were sitting in their seats.

EMR said the "unacceptable" issue had been affecting its new Aurora trains and it had pushed maintenance contractor Hitachi Rail to investigate.

Burke told the BBC the heatwave was in full effect when she caught the delayed 21:32 service to Derby from London St Pancras - which followed two cancelled services - and said commuters had been "very stressed".

"People were pushing and getting trapped and shouting and then everyone starts running on to the train," she said.

All seats were filled on the service and passengers were stood in the aisle when the air conditioning system began to leak "quite a lot".

Burke lent her umbrella to Amanda Lockett, one of the people stood in the aisle of the train getting wet.

"It started to run with water. It got worse and started dripping on other people who had their laptops out," Lockett said.

"We were just laughing at the ridiculousness of it," Burke added, who said the malfunction was "a new low" to her commute on a relatively new train.

"You're paying top whack, you're not even getting a seat and the trains are just not fit for the purpose," she said.

"It's cheaper to get a flight over to Europe than it is to get on the train to London, which is crazy."

Burke said she had travelled regularly between Derby and London for work, booking the EMR service weeks in advance, and paid in excess of £127 for a return journey.

She said trains heading north out of the capital were often cancelled and there was a lack of communication, with crowds of passengers gathering in front of the barriers of platforms one to four at St Pancras.

An EMR spokesperson said the firm was sorry to passengers whose journeys were affected by the air conditioning fault.

"We can confirm the water seen inside the affected carriage was caused by a fault with the air conditioning system on one of the new Aurora trains," they said.

"This is unacceptable, and we have pushed Hitachi Rail's maintenance teams to investigate the issue.

"They have rolled out what they believed to be a solution across the fleet of 10 Aurora trains currently in service.

"While this has resolved the issue on most trains, one unit has continued to experience the fault and is now undergoing further investigation to implement a permanent fix."

They added any affected passengers seeking compensation or a refund should contact EMR's customer service centre.

Hitachi Rail has been approached for comment.

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