Boat passengers say they were left stranded after paddle-steamer trip

A group of passengers from Wales claim they were left stranded in Somerset on Saturday (June 10) after going on a paddle steamer trip.

Travelling from Penarth on the Waverley, they said they were forced to make their own way home from Minehead after coaches which were supposed to pick them up never arrived. One passenger, Tony Farr, said the day quickly turned into a "nightmare" after he an 120 other people were left stranded.

The Waverley said that a "miscommunication" meant 70 people had missed the coaches. The plan for the group was to get on a boat from Penarth with the Paddle Steamer Waverley at 10am then arrive at Minehead by 11.45am, Wales Online reports.

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The group would then explore for a few hours before being picked up at 4.30pm by coaches. However, they claim the coaches never showed up and members from the group claim they were left "abandoned and left to their own devices".

Tony said: “We booked a ticket on the Waverley this morning going from Penarth to Minehead. We had about four to five hours in Minehead and then coaches were going to take us to Ilfracombe to rejoin the Waverley. The coaches were going to pick us up at 4.30pm but they didn’t turn up.

“I probably counted 120 people - including a lot of elderly people, a blind woman, a woman in a wheelchair, and lots of families with children who were abandoned in Minehead on a Saturday evening.

“There were a lot of elderly people there.”

He added: “Some people are at the station getting a train to Bristol, but of course, there are no trains running from Bristol to Cardiff because the Severn Tunnel Junction is closed. So they’re going to have a nightmare journey getting back