8 March

[whole diary]

[Melksham Dawn]

The 07:17 from Melksham this morning was late by about 10 mins.  The information point didn't tell us though.. it just said everything was OK till 07:17 and then there is no train due.....

The lateness made me miss my conection at Swindon which I had a reserved (only valid on this service) ticket.  They didn't check the tickets, pity cus I was looking forward to the discussion beginning "This ticket isn't valid on this train"

[grahame]

There's an interesting thread running on what you should do in such circumstances here: .....

http://www.railchat.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8884

Whilst I do suspect you would have been OK, it would only have taken one "jobsworth" and there have been a few of those around of late ...

[Melksham Dawn]

Out of interest I asked at the customer services at Paddington last night, as boarding for the 17:30 was delayed.  I was told that "as long as you've got a through ticket it will be valid on the next available service".  Perhaps I should get it in writing?

[grahame]

Ooh - if you missed the 18:42 at Swindon because the 17:30 was running late, your ticket will also be valid on the 06:19 

More seriously,  I have noticed (you'll see a case in point that happened to me) a tendency for a relatively relaxed view to be taken to enquiries such as yours which passes the buck on to the next person down the line ... you're then OK unless you happen upon someone who interprets the rules more harshly, or is so fare removed from the initial incident that he thinks you're trying to pull a fast one.   "In Writing" is a good idea as was described in that other thread, which I will point out is NOT an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) example.