I was caught up with Leeds United fans in train station chaos, potential danger and latest failure — YEP 2/12/24
By Graham Smyth
Leeds United supporters were held in the entrance of
Blackburn train station for over an hour on Saturday due to the latest rail
failure and YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth got caught up in it.
Requests for taxi rides to Leeds, Todmorden and various West
Yorkshire towns began to ping up on my Uber driver's system. "Something
must be wrong with the trains," he said as we made our way from Ewood Park
to Blackburn train station at 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon. His inability to
pick up a fare coming back the other way prevented him from accepting any of
the jobs coming through, but they kept pinging.
Upon arrival at the station it became immediately clear that
he was right. Leeds fans were milling around the entrance with a trio of police
officers watching on. One told me that they weren't letting the Leeds fans up
to the platforms because there was a delay of some sort with the train. He
encouraged me to try to reach his colleagues at the cordon to explain that I
was not going to Leeds and needed access to the platform to continue my journey
back to South Yorkshire via Bolton and Manchester. The services to Leeds and
York were always going to be jam packed so an alternative route seemed like a
wise choice when booking.
But getting anywhere near the officers lining up along the
top of the steps and the ramp at the far end of the concourse was going to be a
mission in itself. There were hundreds of Leeds fans packed in. It was
wall-to-wall and there was frustration, tinged with anger. Moving towards the
right-hand side I noticed an officer explaining to a Manchester-bound traveller
that he could go and show his ticket at the front if he wanted to get up to the
platform. So I followed that traveller. So too did a woman and her young son,
who could have been no more than seven or eight years of age. Others came from
a different direction and were more forceful in attempting to part the crowd. A
Leeds fan took issue with being barged and the man who pushed him, who did not
appear to be part of the football crowd, escalated the confrontation until they
were parted. It could so easily have turned nasty.
Progress towards the front was slow. The crowd was tightly
packed. A supporter led his crying partner out of the tightest part of the
throng back towards the entrance.
Up ahead a supporter clambered up onto the raised platform,
using the barrier. A police officer yelled at him and shoved him back down. The
crowd responded with chants aimed at the officer and with the tension simmering
he was duly moved up to the platforms.
At one point a Northern Railway employee appeared to be
attempting to relay some information but the chances of him being heard were
slim to none and he retreated back up towards the platforms with a shake of his
head. Frustration was no longer merely tinged with anger. Patience was running
out.
A drinks can hit the wall above the police cordon.
Additional officers came down to line the barrier, to ironic cheers. Beer flew
into the air as some fans made light of the situation and bounced around. The
mum and youngster had the hoods of their jackets up. And as we inched forward
to round the corner onto the ramp, space was at a premium. A handful of people
appeared to have been let through by police and it encouraged movement in the
direction of the ramp. A Leeds fan took it upon himself to guide the woman and
her child, attempting to make space and trying to get the attention of police
officers to help. But as we turned another corner to reach the police line, the
crowd felt dangerously thick and for a moment the child, whose head was too
close to a barrier for comfort, came under pressure from much bigger bodies.
"I can't do anything mate," said a Leeds fan in his late teens or
early 20s who was next to the boy. He was right, there was nowhere for him to
go to alleviate the pressure. It took concerted, urgent yelling to alert a
police officer and he helped make space for the mum and child to get through.
As those without tickets to southerly or westerly
destinations were continually pushed and held back, a small number of us were
allowed to pass the line. "You're halfway there now mate," grinned an
officer. How wrong he was.
Up on the platforms there were some Leeds fans and
travellers going elsewhere, but no trains running just yet. We later learned
there was a track circuit failure. My train later sat on the track outside
Bolton for what must have been the guts of an hour, simply not moving. A
journey home that began at 4.30pm ended at 10pm. It should have taken two and a
half hours.
This, though, is par for the course. To get the train back
from a Leeds game, or indeed any football game, is to take your precious time
and toss it into the wind. Delays are commonplace for myriad reasons.
Overcrowding is too. Explanations are often so hard to come by - a Northern
staff member on one of my trains complained to the entire carriage that the
signaller was not picking up the phone. Northern have intimated that the
holding of Leeds fans behind that cordon was a British Transport Police decision,
but had the trains been ready and working then the cordon would not have been
needed.
Northern Railway have said sorry to anyone impacted by the
delay. They also say an employee was met with verbal and physical assaults when
attempting to help the crowd. That, of course, is wholly unacceptable. Anyone
just doing their job should be able to do so without threats or intimidation.
Such behaviour is to be condemned. But the vast majority of those singing
'we're a right set of b******s when we lose' were behaving impeccably, in
extremely trying circumstances. They had been made to wait, without hearing a
satisfactory explanation, for an hour or more. One more elderly supporter near
the front of the crowd had turned to me in near desperation and admitted he
could no longer stand to wait to get to a toilet. So he pushed forward. It was
a nightmare scenario for anyone suffering from anxiety or any number of
physical disabilities. Sorry isn’t nearly enough.
Hysteria is to be avoided at all costs when discussing
situations involving football crowds, for good and historical reasons. Those
reasons are also why such care should be taken to safeguard supporters from
potentially dangerous situations. Blackburn train station entrance hall became
one of those, even if temporarily and in only a couple of places. It could so
easily have boiled over. And when situations like these pile up, then it is
fair and reasonable of Leeds United supporters or their peers from other clubs
to ask if the treatment they are given is comparable to other groups. Answers
and information should not be so hard to come by. Travel to and from games is
not a crime and should not be so difficult. But really, it’s not about people
being inconvenienced for an hour or more. It isn’t even about football
supporters being treated like second-class citizens or with prejudice, again,
although that’s a topic in need of further discussion. It’s about the safety of
everyone. Fans, rail workers, police officers, everyone and anyone involved.
In December 2023 there was overcrowding that felt dangerous
on a train leaving Leeds station for Blackburn. The kind of jam-packed crowd
that makes you feel ill at ease. God forbid the train should have to stop
suddenly with that many bodies crammed together. God speed to anyone ever
needing or attempting to get to a toilet in such a situation - if even there is
one functioning and available.
This season's game was moved to a 1.30pm kick-off back in
September at the request of police, but the fixture list and Leeds' visit to
Blackburn has been known since June 26. Everyone knew then that 7,500 would be
making the journey to Ewood and a great number of those would wish to go there
and back by train. Everyone knew that last season's trip over the border into
Lancashire was an unnecessarily unpleasant one for too many travellers. Have
any lessons been learned?
Football is being failed by the rail network on an all-too
frequent basis. This was just the latest instance. How many more will there be?