AVANTI West-Coast says that it has a response team that is currently investigating why passengers were locked in Oxenholme station.

In what has now become a national story, a very delayed train arrived in Oxenholme at around midnight on 16-17 August with around 30 passengers. They then found that the gates out of the station were padlocked shut.

Passengers had taken to climbing over the fences in order to escape. There were concerns that passengers have taken to running over the live railway line to get out of the station.

There is speculation that no trains running between Carlisle and Scotland earlier that day had created a backlog which threw off the timetable. 

Avanti West Coast said in a press statement: “We’re sorry to hear about the experience of the customers who were at Oxenholme station on Tuesday night.

“We’re currently looking into the circumstances of what happened. We’d like to thank the Network Rail team onsite for their swift action in getting our customers out the station safely.”

However, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron said that he would be asking the government to remove Avanti West Coast's franchise holder status. He places the 'totally unacceptable and inexcusable' situation squarely on its management. 

READ MORE: Passengers locked in Oxenholme station because of delayed train

He said: "They've turned what was the best service in the UK into one of the worst. They committed a series of errors. This begs the question what right do they have to run a franchise?" 

Malcolm Conway, secretary for the Lakes Line Rail Users' Group which connects Windermere to Oxenholme took more of a neutral stance, saying that that could have come down to 'one missed phone call.' 

However, he was still angry that the situation had occurred: "It shouldn't have happened at all. There were 30 people on the train, some of those people will have wanted Windermere because there would have been a train that connected to there. 

"You are not going to get a taxi to Windermere at 1 in the morning on a weekday.

"It won't help with tourism much, because there is now national coverage."