Lois Avery - "My rant about train companies cashing in during poor weather"

[whole diary]

[Lee]

From Chippenham People:

My rant about train companies cashing in during poor weather

I was on a train on Monday from Bristol to Chippenham when a member of First Great Western's staff announced that passengers using the wrong train would be charged penalty fares.

This is all well and good. I agree that if you've bought an advance ticket you should use that train alone - in ordinary circumstances.

What made me extremely angry was that the snow had delayed trains for hours, (I waited an hour and a half) some were cancelled, yet passengers were still going to be held to ransom over an advanced booking.

So, if a passenger was booked on to a 1.30pm train but they saw that it was delayed by an hour and a half they weren't allowed to jump on the next available train (even if it came at 1.30pm) because it wasn't their specified train!

Not only did First Great Western fail to provide a service throughout the day, they then thought it was acceptable to allow a self-righteous member of staff the privilege of reminding passengers of the rules.

In my opinion, exceptional circumstances should be followed with relaxed rules. If you book a train but it's an hour or so late then chances are it will scupper all of your other plans, so why not be allowed to jump on the next train even though it's not 'yours'.

It was made worse by the fact that the train wasn't full, there were plenty of seats and no one even bothered to follow up the warning by coming to actually check tickets.

I had an open ticket so this didn't directly affect me. I just thought it was an interesting example of our rail network's shoddy service and poor customer service.

Did you have problems on the trains this week? Let us know how you got on.

[inspector_blakey]

If that story is all true, then I'd be inclined to agree that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) were treating passengers pretty shoddily by expecting everyone with advance tickets to stick to their specified trains in amongst a myriad of delays and cancellations. Fair enough when the service is running normally but when the job has fallen to bits I really don't think that's acceptable.

I suppose there's always a question over whether that was indeed official policy from FGW mission control or if it was just a rogue "jobsworth" (hate the word but in this case it's descriptive) member of staff.

_{Edited to fix "bold" all the way through. Oops.}

[Tim]

Rather counterproductive of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) IF INDEED IT IS TRUE.  Annoy passengers by delaying tehm by 1 1/2 hours and thereby entitle them to claim compensation. 

[Brucey]

Train Manager (or whoever) was probably just reading off a script: "Welcome aboard the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service to x, this service will now call at x.  CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) blah, buffet blah, Penalty Fares blah."

A Bristol-London AP SLOUGH ticket states this in its restrictions (my bold)

Advance tickets are           
non-refundable.               
If the train the customer     
purchased a ticket for is     
cancelled or delayed by more 
than 60 minutes, special     
arrangements will be made to 
accommodate them on another   
train (although a seat cannot
be guaranteed). If, as a     
result, customers decide not 
to travel, a refund will be   
offered on completely unused 
tickets and they will not be 
charged an administration fee.

[basset44]

Hi All,

Would like to say that on Monday arriving back at Gatwick, we were lucky, from Prague although I allowed plenty of time with my Advanced Tickets at least 3 hours we were delayed by over 4.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff were more than helpfull and allowed travel and I would like to say thanks

Basset

[SDS]

Also is a rule in the PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) scheme which states a PF cant be charged if that person has been given permission to travel on [the] train in question.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) can also refuse compensation in the current climate as "weather" is beyond the control of the railways.

45. Circumstances that are not within a Train Company^s control
For the purposes of Conditions 42 and 43 [compo], circumstances that are not within a Train
Company^s control include:
...
(e)  exceptionally severe weather conditions;
...

I suspect they'd send you a comp ticket for use on FGW to keep you sweet.

[JayMac]

I'd also go with the idea that the TM^‡(resolve) was just reading his 'script'. If the service was a Bristol TM starter then one of the announcements you will hear is a request for passengers with Advance tickets to check that they are on the service that tallies with their reservation. This announcement is then followed by the warning that if you are not on your booked service then you will be liable to pay the full open fare for your journey. A penalty fare is also an option in these circumstances but I've yet to hear PF^▸ (Penalty Fare)'s mentioned on HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s starting at Bristol. 'Full Open Fare' is the usual announcement.

Regardless of the problems with delays or cancellations to preceding services, this announcement still needs to be made as it is perfectly possible that there may be pax onboard with Advance tickets for a later service.

Of course, one would hope that pax booked on earlier delayed/cancelled services would not face sanction. I'm fairly confident that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff have not chinged pax in these circumstances.

L. Avery's rant would appear to be unfounded. However I do like the term 'self-righteous member of staff'. Much better than 'jobsworth'. 

[vacman]

you cannot be penalty fared for being on a restricted ticket!

[SDS]

Theres ways around that.
Withdraw the old ticket and just PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) them as if they had no ticket.
You can actually be PFd for being on certain types of restricted tickets, or charged the full SOS/FOS. I know of loads of PF trained collectors that do that.

[Brucey]

you cannot be penalty fared for being on a restricted ticket!

I believe section 12 of the NRCoC^▸ (National Rail Conditions of Carriage) allows penalty fares to be charged for being on the wrong train.

[Tim]

I thought that a PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) couldn't be issued if you had an off peak ticket on a peak train, but hat if you had an invalid AP ticket then you were treated as if you had no ticket and a PF could be issued.

[JayMac]

That too, was my interpretation of the PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) Rules. Off Peak on a Peak service then no PF should be issued. Advance on wrong service, then effectively no valid ticket is held, so a PF may be issued.

[SDS]

An off peak on peak then an excess should be issued. Refuse to pay the excess then its a different ballgame.
Same with off route tickets, but travel beyond vailidity can be PFd.

AP can be PFd, as indeed your ticket is only valid for one specific train.

[readytostart]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have been accepting Advance on any train on the correct (or previous) day to help those who have been disrupted through no fault of their own. It's been kept fairly quiet so that those who can travel at their booked time don't jump on the bandwagon.

[JayMac]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) running bandwagons now are they? Gotta be better than a Vomiter..... 

Merry Christmas, rts!