Conditions of Carriage when the last train is cancelled.

[AC47461]

I always thought that if the last train to your destination was cancelled, the operator should get you, where possible, alternative transport home. However, I'll happily admit I've never personally read this anywhere, and it could easily have changed since privatisation too, but having got caught in the disruption at Liverpool Street last Thursday I wondered if this was part of the conditions either ever or anymore?

The reason I ask is because at one point I was offered a cab to Billericay when I had stated my destination was Rayleigh, and was informed I could make my own way from there, as if that was totally acceptable. There were several others going to Wickford and Hockley around me at the time too. I told the guy that I understood the conditions of carriage was they should get me to my destination, and eventually we got cabs to wherever we needed to go (for which I might add, I was grateful).

I thought I would check the National Rail site to see if I was right but all I could find was this:

"28.2 Where disruption prevents you from completing the journey for which your Ticket is valid and is being used, any Train Company will, where it reasonably can, provide you with alternative means of travel to your destination, or if necessary, provide overnight accommodation for you"

It doesn't explicitly refer to 'last train', but perhaps this is what it's always been?

 

[Randomer]

I've never read that condition as to your home; I've always interpreted it as getting you to the destination on your ticket (or combination of tickets) so generally the station to which you were travelling to. Which I think is the commonly held interpretation of the current Conditions of Travel, or the new ones that commence tomorrow, 28.2 hasn't changed in them.

I'll put aside the practice of some TOC like Northern cancelling the last train by removing it from the timetable "as if it never existed" on public facing systems and refusing to honour tickets bought before it was removed. Or things like the Passengers' Rights and Obligations regulations. Short answer to me is; yes the NRCOT should mean you get provided transport to your booked station, real life its much more complicated and might mean sorting it out yourself and taking legal action to prod the TOC into paying out. That interpretation of "where it reasonably can" is quite a wide one.

 

[AC47461]

I've never read that condition as to your home; I've always interpreted it as getting you to the destination on your ticket (or combination of tickets) so generally the station to which you were travelling to. Which I think is the commonly held interpretation of the current Conditions of Travel, or the new ones that commence tomorrow, 28.2 hasn't changed in them.

I'll put aside the practice of some TOC like Northern cancelling the last train by removing it from the timetable "as if it never existed" on public facing systems and refusing to honour tickets bought before it was removed. Or things like the Passengers' Rights and Obligations regulations. Short answer to me is; yes the NRCOT should mean you get provided transport to your booked station, real life its much more complicated and might mean sorting it out yourself and taking legal action to prod the TOC into paying out. That interpretation of "where it reasonably can" is quite a wide one.

Thanks for you reply @Randomer

Realising I did put 'home', I honestly didn't mean that, I should have put home station, or actual destination or something. I wouldn't expect transport to my house, although having said that, the taxi on Thursday (well, Friday morning...) did drop me home (fare had clocked £180 by then!). We passed Rayleigh Station on the way and there were a couple of cabs on the taxi rank so I would have been ok if he hadn't.

 

[Hadders]

My view is condition 28.2 is quite clear, and doesn’t just apply to the last train of the day either.

The issue is that many poorly trained staff are not adequately trained in this area and try and deny passengers their contractual rights.

 

[Watershed]

"Where it reasonably can" is a proviso that a lot of TOCs (and some TOC apologists!) try to hide behind, as if to suggest that alternative transport or accommodation possibly being expensive makes it less practicable for a TOC to provide it. That is clearly a reading incompatible with the actual wording and intent of the clause, but the kinds of people who make these arguments are rarely particularly well versed in legal matters...

Article 18 of the PRO provides stronger protection insofar as the proviso is only "where and when physically possible"; this makes absolutely clear that cost is not a valid consideration when determining whether or not a TOC "can" provide these alternatives.