https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-nine-hour-journey-to-nowhere/

For the next two hours on platform 2 of Thirsk station there was a mood of old-fashioned solidarity among all 500 or so the passengers of the doomed Azuma. Children played tag on the platform edge while the adults marvelled at the lack of assistance. The LNER staff paced the platform briskly back and forth, trailing customers, trying to pick up enough speed to make questions impossible while not actually breaking into a run. I’ve seen horses do the same thing to stay ahead of flies. Pinned to the lapel of one guard’s waistcoat was a badge: ‘Be kind. I am someone’s daughter.’

At the far end of the platform, the driver had stopped for long enough to collect a circle of passengers. ‘You have three options as I see it,’ she said, ‘and none of them are good. You can hope that this train starts up again, but I can tell you it won’t. You can go over the bridge and catch the next train back north again, or you can get a taxi to York.’ The last option sounded best but it was out. No Thirsk taxi was prepared to take any passenger to York station for love nor money. Someone offered £200 for the 30-minute trip but nothing doing. In 2023 the usual rules of supply and demand are suspended.