Having arrived at Paddington that night hundreds of us boarded the
00.25 train for Hayes and Reading - and then sat, and sat, and sat
going nowhere - for nearly two and a half hours. No-one had any
specific info., nothing was announced although the train p.a. crackled
now-and-again. All we were told was that "all of the lines had been
closed by the police due to an incident at Hanwell." And "No - we
couldn't even get to Ealing."

At Paddington there were no managers trying to sort things out. There
were only four hapless station staff and two drivers trying to organise
400+ tired passengers milling around not knowing what to do.

EVENTUALLY at 02.45 - fully two and half hours later - all that
FGWL/FGW could provide was a double decker bus for stations to Reading
and a small coach for Oxford. Just these for 400+ passengers.

Having got the bus to Reading via Hayes we then had to endure the bus
driver steering with his left hand, with his right hand holding a
mobile phone to his left ear. Apparently he was talking to his
supervisor who must have known that he was driving a bus chock. full of
passengers. In fact this bus was crammed with passengers standing
upstairs and downstairs and on the stairs, and such was his eratic
driving whilst on the phone that when he hit the median curb into Hayes
the bus and everyone lurched sideways putting all of our lives at risk.

CJB