There has been a comparable (maybe worse) situation on the commuter railway in London in recent weeks, a rush hour train from St Pancras to Luton (which probably contained people heading for the airport) stuck in the tunnel for three hours, 18.00 to 21.00, with no air con or ventilation, emergency batery lights which ran down after an hour, no communication, many standing passengers packed in, etc.
St Albans passengers stranded on rush-hour train (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)
In the end passengers forced the doors and got down onto the tracks, for which they were criticised, in an approach comparable to blowing the slides. It is only complete management incompetence and desperation of those involved who are left to their own devices which leads to this.
It seems that something which has happened in recent years is that transport operators of multiple types have lost the ability to handle operational failures. Such "management" as may be involved seem to be a handful 6 months out of college (this especially happens with issues outside 'normal' business hours).