One question I would like answering definitively is as follows.
Does the material contained within the Routeing Guide, and itineraries provided by NRE / TOC websites (separate to the ticket purchase) constitute part of the contract to travel, given they're referred to in the NRCoC, which all tickets (and thus contracts) are subject to?
This question seems to get right to the heart of this difficulty.
It is perhaps not a coincidence that a recent (2010) text book on Contract Law in general looks at the two questions you've raised - the question of 'reasonable notice of contract terms' and question of 'incorporation by reference to another document' - and tries to clarify the difficulties in these two situations by looking at historic Railway Case Law! ("
Textbook on Contract Law" Jill Poole OUP 2010).
The 2 railway cases cited are
Parker v South Eastern Railway (1877) 2 CPD 416 and
Thompson v London Midland & Scottish Railway [1930] 1 KB 41. These confirmed that relevant terms may be found in external referenced documents (even if they were bulky and expensive documents) and that the passenger is bound by the terms (even where they are unable to understand the terms when the seller of tickets is unaware of that inability). These 2 judgements are joined in that Chapter by others from non-railway sectors, as we would expect, and from much more recent cases, but the principles remain unchanged. Two of these other principles which have developed since then are 'giving notice in time' (i.e. the terms must be available at the time of forming the contract) and 'adequate notice' (publishing the terms on a ticket, or a reference to the terms on a ticket, is after the contract is formed, and therefore is too late).
There is considerable Case Law on the question of unusual or unexpected terms, and I've referred in the past to Lord Denning's famous remark in
Spurling v Bradshaw Ltd that it a terms can be so unexpected that "it would need to be printed in red ink with a red hand pointing to it", but here we are not looking at an onerous term which is unexpected (travel via St Pancras) but a relaxation which (to my mind) is unexpected travel via St Pancras). It is hard to see how Denning LJ's analysis could be applied to this 'permission' to travel the long way round : "would not be regarded as fairly and reasonably brought to the notice of the other party unless it was drawn to his attention in the most explicit way" simply doesn't readily map onto the question of a rather obscure permission which is not drawn to the attention of the Railway Company.
I remain unhappy that the printed Routing Guide is adequately engaged with the point of contracting to be absolutely binding as a Contract Term. I have also said that the question of "error" must be considered when an unexpected term, condition or permission is found (and I stirred up more debate than I had intended by pointing out that exploiting an error for personal advantage is likely to be evidence of Fraud). But I cannot find fault with the incorporation of the on-line ticket selling systems as a means of providing additional details to the Terms of the Contract where the Rail Operators have explicity identified their on-line booking systems as a component in determining the routes of travel to be assoociated with a ticket at the point of sale (the point of forming the Contract) (and it is hard to see how an unexpected term could be treated as an error after it having been the subject of repeated correspondence over a period of a year or more without its removal or correction).
I wonder if Mr Boden & his minions are throwing another "wobbly" at the prospect of passengers using his "shiny new trains" without paying the premium?
I'm aware that you have a long-standing vigourous campaign of insults and abuse towards Northern Rail and against one of East Coast's crew. I hadn't realised that you had a similar programme of personal unpleasantness against Mike Boden. It saddens me to see these immature personal insults in what could otherwise be an intelligent forum for discussion and a means of bringing about change by constructive negotiation.