AVANTI West Coast (AWC) has responded to the incident at Oxenholme station where the passengers were locked in.

In a letter seen by the Gazette that was sent to MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron, the executive director for stations Natasha Grice set out the day from AWC's perspective. 

The Oxenholme station fiasco, which has received national coverage, happened at midnight on 16-17 August. A very delayed train from London Euston arrived at the station beyond the time that the staff workers went home. 

The passengers wishing to reach Cumbria via the Lakes Line or living locally in Kendal got off the train, to find the gates were padlocked shut. Some passengers took to climbing over the gates. 

The train manager said that the train would continue to Penrith, where the passengers could arrange transport home. This caused anger until a National Rail worker arrived with a key. 

READ MORE: Man trapped at Oxenholme questions Avanti's franchise status

Ms Grice said in her letter to Mr Farron that the service arrived 100 minutes late because of a signalling failure in the Carstairs area causing knock-on effects up and down the West Coast Mainline. 

She continued: "There should have been a 'not to stop' order issued for Oxenholme, but unfortunately the Train Manager and Driver were not made aware of this instruction. This is an extremely rare situation.

"The Train Manager requested the passengers to reboard the train for travel onto the next station - Penrith - for rail replacement transport.

"Unfortunately, only some of the customers adhered to the Train Manager's instruction. While the majority complied - a minority of people refused to reboard the service and instead looked to exit the station by their own means." 

Both Kerry Francis and Rhiannon Neale, two passengers that were on board the train and wanted to get off at Oxenholme, did not blame the train manager for the incident. 

However, Mr Francis said: "I understand there were staffing issues but there wasn't the customer care. You need somebody there to help-it fell to the customers to try and work it out." 

Mr Farron has called for AWC's franchise status to be removed.