Storm Doris was well forecast to hit parts of the UK on 23rd February and much of the country prepared for the worst. For the team at First Travel Solutions (FTS) the build up to the storm actually started on the 22nd February with some train operating companies (TOCs) requesting contingency standby coaches to combat the forecasted disruption across the various rail networks. There’s nothing like being well prepared!
On 23rd February, when storm Doris hit the UK, our first request for emergency transport came in at 06.47 on behalf of Great Western Railways. This very much set the tone for what was to be an exceptionally busy day for the team at FTS. We received over 50 different requests for coach transportation, totalling 233 emergency coaches for a multitude of clients including London Midland, GTR and Arriva Trains Wales.
The busiest period within the FTS control room was from 09.41 until 15.28 – every available resource we had was recruited in to support.
Whilst dealing with all the emergency requests, we still had to track and monitor the ‘pre-planned’ coaches. Added to this, we also had 136 pre-planned taxi journeys to track. The major weather disruption resulted in FTS recruiting 146 emergency taxis, mainly for Transpennine Express and easyJet.
Over the course of 23rd February, we recruited 381 emergency vehicles for our customers – all in a day’s work right?!