A MUM who was left stranded at a train station with her two-week-old son after their train home was cancelled has slammed First Great Western.

Casey Hancock, 20, went to visit her grandad Jerry on Saturday morning to introduce him to her new son Jayjay along with her brother and sister, Kieran and Chelsea, and friend Katrina, who was with her mum Rachel and son Noah.

After spending the afternoon at his house in Queens Road, Trowbridge, the group arrived at Trowbridge station at 4pm, planning to get the 4.27pm train home to Swindon.

But at 4.30pm it was announced via the platform’s information screen that the First Great Western service had been cancelled due to signalling problems, leaving them stranded on the platform.

“The whole thing was a nightmare, that was the only train running to Swindon that evening which meant we couldn’t get home,” said Miss Hancock, who is on maternity leave from her job as a sales assistant at Homebase.

“The ticket office was closed and there was nobody we could speak to. When we finally got through to someone on the platform helpline they said we should get a train to Bath and then a bus from Bath to Swindon, but we didn’t want to do that with small children as it would have taken ages.

“We ended up waiting at the station until 6.30pm, two and a half hours after we arrived, which obviously wasn’t ideal as we had babies with us.”

After realising they could not get home, Mrs Hancock went back to her grandad’s house where she and the group stayed the night before he drove them back to Swindon on Sunday morning.

Miss Hancock added: “I had only packed enough things for Jayjay for Saturday and didn’t anticipate we’d have to stay overnight.

“This meant I had to go and buy more nappies and food for him on Saturday evening as he was becoming restless.

“Train services definitely need to be improved – it’s not right that children as young as that can be left stranded. Not only that, but First Great Western have offered no apology at all.”

A First Great Western spokesman said: “There was a significant signalling issue between Swindon and Didcot on Saturday which prevented us from being able to run trains in the afternoon.

“Replacement transport was sourced but we are sorry for those who had to wait for their service or and we urge anyone who was unable to travel to get in touch with our customer service team who will look into their journey details.”