INACCURATE FGW CUSTOMER INFO and - FAILURE OF SWT'S WOKINGHAM DUTY MANAGER

[whole diary]

[bigdaz]

Thank you everyone for all your contributions to my discussion thread.  People have given many different pieces of advice and I am sure ^&* will be better equipped to deal with any future situation such as this.

I would suggest this discussion thread has now run its course.

Bigdaz.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks very much for your feedback, bigdaz. 

Our best wishes to your wife's colleague, and I do hope that one bad experience doesn't put her off having another go at travelling by train, sometime.

On this forum, we tend not to lock topics where it is acknowledged that a discussion has run its natural course, so I'll leave this one open.  If anyone has anything genuinely new to add, please feel free to do so: otherwise, as bigdaz suggests, we'll perhaps leave it here.

Thanks,

CfN. 

[hornbeam]

Interesting,

   My partner who travels from Egham to Reading was held up by all of this. He found the staff very unhelpful. Was just told ^I don^t know what^s going on there will probably be buses^. So he ended up getting a taxi with some others and paying for it. I understand that buses/ coaches take time to sort out, but what is the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) duty of care?!

Had a similar issue at Ascot after a broken down train- and again information was lacking and it seemed the station staff didn^t really care.

[bigdaz]

TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) had a duty of care to get you to your destination.  SO if they cannot lay on coaches / buses, then you have the right (I believe) to get a taxi and charge it to the TOC (although others on here, such as bignosemac, will be able confirm this for me).  However, I think the TOC have to order the taxi not the customer...?

[JayMac]

National Rail Conditions of Carriage says:

43. Help from Train Companies if you are stranded
If disruption caused by circumstances within the control of a Train Company or a Rail
Service Company leaves you stranded before you have reached your destination and the
Train Company whose trains you are entitled to use is unable to get you to that destination
by other means, any Train Company which is in a position to help will, if it reasonably can,
either arrange to get you to that destination, or provide overnight accommodation for you.

Bear in mind that this clause only covers you when the disruption is caused by circumstances within the control of the rail industry. Circumstances not within the control of TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) are futher defined in the NRCoC^▸ (National Rail Conditions of Carriage):

45. Circumstances that are not within a Train Company^s control
For the purposes of Conditions 42 and 43, circumstances that are not within a Train
Company^s control include:
(a) acts or threats of vandalism or terrorism;
(b) suicides or accidents involving trespassers;
(c) gas leaks or fires in lineside buildings not caused by a Train Company or a Rail
Service Company or any of their employees or agents;
(d) line closures at the request of the police or emergency services;
(e) exceptionally severe weather conditions;
(f) industrial action by a Train Company^s, or Rail Service Company^s, staff or agents
or by any other person;
(g) riots or civil commotion; and
(h) fire, mechanical or electrical failure or a defect (except where this is caused by a
Train Company or Rail Service Company or their employees or agents, or as a
result of the condition of a Train Company^s trains).

[SDS]

(i) Staff that cannot be bothered.
(j) Coach drivers that dont know the route, or just want to go home eariler.
(sic)