Frustrated passengers demanded to be let off a train after delays caused by a locomotive fire elsewhere on the main line to London saw them held up for more than three hours.
Terrorism expert Mike Yardley, of Witham was one of the passengers held up on the train between Shenfield and Ingatestone, after a locomotive fire delayed more than 20 trains on the Norwich to London line on Friday
He said: "Rightly people who use this line are fed up to the back teeth of it."
And he said he did not accept that passengers had acted irresponsibly by leaving the train.
"The train was evacuated very sensibly," he added.
He said passengers, including one who had a flight to America to catch, had told the driver they wanted to get off and they set a deadline to wait before they would ask to be let off.
Mr Yardley said he saw there was a path nearby and the train was not far out of Ingatestone.
A Great Eastern Railways spokesman said the best thing to do in an emergency is stay on the train.
Published Monday, January 27, 2003
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