Food for Lorry Drivers

[MikeT]

The following is showing up today on the BBC website. "Seven trains carrying crates of food for the hauliers have left London in the past 48 hours, with the Salvation Army distributing the items."
Is this just a reporter getting things wrong it did it really happen?

Merry Christmas to one and all.

 

[yorksrob]

I certainly hope so. Kent has an excellent railway network, so it is good to make use of it.

The Chatham lines appear to be not blocked, so you could get something down there.

 

[dgl]

Yes, if you read the previous sentence/paragraph it gives you extra info, South Eastern and Network Rail working in collaboration.

Southeastern Railway and Network Rail arranged for food to be delivered to lorry drivers stuck in Operation Stack on the M20.
Seven trains carrying crates of food for the hauliers have left London in the past 48 hours, with the Salvation Army distributing the items.

 

[yorksrob]

Does anyone know what route they've taken ?

 

[30907]

Does anyone know what route they've taken ?

On a random check for yesterday at Ashford and Dover, the lack of VSTP schedules suggests the crates were conveyed by service train. Given the lack of class 325s or similar in the SE fleet, thus seems quite logical.
Alternatively, they could have been conveyed by a late night service from North Pole

 

[Mojo]

I suspect that the seven trains were not full of food, but that [an amount] of food was carried across seven different trains.

 

[district]

One coach on each of the 7 trains (across the 23rd and 24th) was locked OOU with various food/drinks provisions on board, donated by station retailers, Sainsburys and other businesses in London, and unloaded at Ashford where it was stored in our offices ready for the Salvation Army and the Kent Resillience forum to collect. This included trains on the HS1 route from St Pancras, the Maidstone East line from Victoria and the Mainline from Charing Cross.

I'm pretty sure we carried more sandwiches and bottles of water yesterday evening than passengers... I felt like a freight controller not a station controller!

 

[yorksrob]

Ah, cheers. Nice to see the classic routes being utilised as well !

 

[johnnychips]

God bless the lorry drivers Stuck on the queue. Must be rough for them. Hope They got something to eat and somewhere To gotothe toilet. (apologies for illiteracy I -phone being silly).