Great Western Coffee Shop

I am booked to travel back from Paddington this coming Sunday with an advance ticket.  At the time of booking (15 March) my journey was Paddington dep 1227, change Swindon arr Trowbridge 1413.  As I collected my tickets from the booking office I have a print out confirming those times.  I now find that I have to get buses from Swindon with a one hour wait there and a further bus from Chippenham, finally arriving at Trowbridge (if I'm lucky) at 1545, 92 minutes later than I was told when I booked.  As I booked on line why could I not have been notified of this change as GWR have my email address on my account.  I shall try a delay repay claim but I bet I will have a lot of hassle with that as they will claim that I arrived at the "published" time.  Once again poor public service from Network Rail and GWR

Strange you were sold that ticket as engineering works in the Bath area down as far as Westbury have been known for quite sometime.

It was booked on line 8 weeks ago and tickets collected.  Clearly NR had not loaded up the revised times that early.  If I had know I would have taken a different route with a shorter bus journey

From my local train operater (SWR):

What should you do if your Advance Purchase ticket is bought more than six weeks before you travel?
If you purchase an Advance ticket more than six weeks before your journey, please ensure you check back with us at the 6 weeks mark to see if your train time, mode of travel (bus replacement instead of a train) and price may have altered.

If you check back and your train time has changed significantly (moved by over 15 minutes either side of your ticket), then your tickets will be valid on the service immediately before or after your originally booked service without you having to make any changes to your ticket.

Refunds are not normally available on Advance purchase tickets, but if the change in journey times or mode of travel (a bus replacement service) means that you no longer wish to travel you may claim a full refund on the unused tickets from your original retailer.

If the fare available 6 weeks before the departure date is less than the fare originally purchased for the same journey you may wish to purchase these tickets at the cheaper fare. A full refund of the original unused tickets with no admin fee will be available from the retailer where you made your original purchase.

The relevant bit of GWR's "Planned engineering" page says this:

So on that basis you could perhaps travel via Westbury - though the wait for a replacement bus there is rather long, so it's not a lot quicker (2h 28m).

12:57 from Paddington (rather than planned 12:27) to Westbury, arrive there 14:15.
14:29 bus from the Railway Inn (service D1), arrive Trowbridge 14:47.
Total - 1 hour 50 minutes, versus 1 hour 46 originally sold to you, though half an hour later.

12:57 train run by First Group
14:29 bus run by First Group
Ticket sold to you by First Group (a special / advance fare they set)

It would be totally reasonable for First Group to convey you on that 12:57 / 14:29 combo on what strikes me as a far closer product they provide than the much later arrivals via Swindon (change and wait) and Chippenham (another change). It might also be good for them to offer you compensation for the delay of between 30 and 60 minutes on the resulting service - but careful what you wish for, as that may put them off selling the good-value advance tickets until close to the time, or at all.

Usually they do not offer the advance fares on Sundays until the timetable is finalised. I often book my outward journey several weeks before I can book my return journey.  For whatever reason they were offered on this occasion with, what turned out to be, totally inaccurate train times.  I will see what options the staff at Paddington can offer me on Sunday morning.  The D1 from Westbury would not be a problem as I am old enough to hold a bus pass.

Further investigation has shown a 1130 service to Westbury with a short change to the replacement bus getting to Trowbridge at 1325.  I am hoping that good customer relations will prevail and I will be allowed totravel via Westbury.  Otherwise I suspect I will buy a new ticket and then put a claim into GWR on the basis of a very material change in my journey arrangements.  I am sure BNM will offer advice on that.

All sorted. A nice man in the booking office at PAD has transferred my booking to the 1130 to Westbury. No hassle. Customer service at its best😊😊