James' and Carol's Story
James and Carol, passengers in Coach B, live in south Newbury:
We see ourselves as ordinary (middle-aged) folk who, like our fellow passengers, were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our immediate reaction was a sense of how surreal it all was; emphasized by the first television pictures and general media coverage. On several occasions we kept thinking, "Were we really involved in that?"
Very quickly however our thoughts and prayers turned to those less fortunate than ourselves. We were on the train returning from a short break to Lille so one of the practical challenges we faced was the recovery of our possessions by BTP over several weeks. During this process, we did receive some items that were not ours, which made it quite emotional and difficult at times.
Not surprisingly, all modes of transport since November have been testing, especially in the early days. James commutes daily by train. We als make regular social journeys. As we do not own a car we rely entirely on public transport.
What we would like from the Network? To be able to support others and share experiences. We are very conscious of the wider impact the sequence of events has had on our families and friends. We consider ourselves as generally quite positive people, but readily acknowledge there might be hard times to deal with in the months, and indeed years, ahead.