Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

OAP passengers stranded in Dundee say ScotRail must provide after-hours warm area

'If it was any colder somebody could've died.'

Michael and Susan Zappert.
Michael and Susan Zappert were told they would have to wait in the cold at Dundee. Image: Supplied

An elderly couple have called for ScotRail to provide an after-hours warm area after claiming they were left stranded in Dundee.

Susan Zappert, 71, and her husband Michael, 81, paid £176 for first-class tickets from Lanark to Stonehaven on December 27.

However, due to the bad weather caused by Storm Gerrit, their trains were disrupted and the 136-mile journey turned into a nightmare.

After getting a bus from Lanark to Glasgow, they caught a train to Edinburgh with the hope of getting north.

A Scotrail train at Dundee Station.
A ScotRail train at Dundee Station. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DCThomson

At Edinburgh Waverley they saw a train was scheduled to go to Aberdeen. But it was then cancelled, and staff said no trains were likely to run for the rest of the day.

Not to be deterred, the couple then went to the city’s bus station and booked a coach to Aberdeen, but were told it would only go as far as Dundee.

Susan said she tried to book a hotel while on the bus to Dundee but couldn’t get any internet connection.

She told The Courier: “When we got to Dundee we walked to the Premier Inn but it was fully booked.

“I connected to the wifi but found that the nearest hotel that had rooms was the Old Course in St Andrews, which you couldn’t get to because of flooding.

‘If it was any colder someone could’ve died’

“At that point, we went to Dundee Station, but we were told it would close at midnight.

“We asked the person at the station if we would have to go out in the cold and he said ‘yes, we would’.

“There were people walking about who obviously had the same issue – walking around with cases and looking lost.

“It was just a mess – it was freezing cold and if it was any colder somebody could’ve died.”

Dundee Station
The couple were told they couldn’t stay in Dundee overnight. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson

Susan feels more should have been done to ensure travellers had somewhere to go following the cancellations.

She added: “I don’t know Dundee all that well.

“A notice at the station would’ve been enough to tell us where we can go but there didn’t seem to be any structural thing.

“It didn’t occur to me that there wouldn’t be any rooms – that’s because there were a lot of people in the same situation.

“We weren’t needing anything more than a seat out of the weather.”

Susan managed to get a taxi from Dundee to Stonehaven, which cost £265. From there the couple collected their parked car and drove back to their home in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.

She has also claimed compensation for the £176 train ticket.

ScotRail – station has to close ‘for security reasons’

A ScotRail spokesperson said members of the public are not permitted to stay inside Dundee Station for security reasons.

“Similarly, we are unable to require our staff to stay significantly beyond the arrival/departure of the last train as they require adequate rest periods between shifts,” they added.

They said that the provision of onward transport or accommodation “would vary significantly depending on the circumstances of the passenger/situation”.

The spokesperson continued: “But generally, we would be more likely to provide taxi transport to the final destination – though this is a measure of last resort which we only use when we are unable to get people to their destination by rail, replacement bus, or through ticket acceptance on other public transport.”

Conversation