Three Tocs left me two and a half hours late.

I would be very grateful for some advice on this one.

I had a trip Friday 22nd, me plus bike from Henley on Thames to Wareham, and overall the trip took nearly two and a half hours longer than scheduled.

This is the itinerary I booked (via Network rail then GWRs booking engine).

17:09 Henley to Twyford (a 17:21) - GWR
17:31 Twyford to Reading (a 17:37) - GWR
1750 Reading to Winchester (a 18:25) - XC with reserved bike space
18:30 Winchester to Wareham (a 19:45) - SWT

The problems started at Twyford. We arrived on time, but there was no 17:31 train at all. It doesn't exist. The screens showed the next train at 17:39. This arrived at Reading too late to make the 17:50 CrossCountry connection, which had pulled away by the time I reached the platform. This left me stuck, my reservation was on that train, so I had to make a new one. An expensive call to XC eventually confirmed there were no spaces on the next train at 18:50. Already effectively being delayed by an hour, I was not best pleased. In the end I decided to chance it and when the XC train arrived I joined the train anyway, along with all the others. Turns out there were about 7 bikes in the 3 spaces when we left Reading.

The problems didn't stop there though. This train arrived late into reading, and departed late, so the train was already 15 minutes behind on this leg. I stayed on until Bournemouth as I doubted the SWT connection at Winchester would be held, using the principle of get a close to the destination as I can whilst I can, and we arrived in Bournemouth around thirteen minutes late (20:24).

At Bournemouth, I then found out that my connecting train was not going to appear on time either, The next connection was due at 21:04, but did not leave for another half hour, finally dropping me off at Wareham at 22:09.

So all in all, I was 2 hours 24 minutes late. The platform staff at Bournemouth let me know that there had been signalling problems near Basingstoke, and all trains on the line were delayed that evening.

So now I am wondering, can I get some sort of delay repay? If so, who from, as there were three operators involved. Each one had their faults that then caused missed connections and further delays.

The worst in my mind however, is GWR, for selling me a ticket and itinerary for a connection that doesn't even exist, on their own network. That train still seems to be an advertised connection online, you can check and there is a 17:31 Twyford - Reading train listed, same as on their printed timetables. Am I reading it wrong?

TL-DR - A combined journey with three operators ended up being 2:24 late, one leg involving a train that does not actually run, so who is to blame?

The 17:31 is a HST to Westbury (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C41507/2016/07/22/advanced), although without a bike reservation you probably wouldn't have been allowed on.

As for Reading, couldn't you have boarded a Basingstoke local service to get to Basingstoke and pick up a SWT towards Winchester, then onto one of the fast Weymouth services?

The claim lies with GWR in its entirety, as far as delay compensation goes. You should apply to them and them only.

Thanks AlterEgo, I'll make my start there.

Kite159, if that's true, then I somehow we both managed to miss a hulking great HST stopping, presumably on the fast lines, which is rather embarrassing.

AlterEgo said:

The claim lies with GWR in its entirety, as far as delay compensation goes. You should apply to them and them only.

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There was zero delay with GWR, they got on the wrong train.

N Levers said:

There was zero delay with GWR, they got on the wrong train.

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If the 1731 train called as advertised then this is correct.

JakeF said:

If the 1731 train called as advertised then this is correct.

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The OP claims the train wasn't advertised. Historic CCLDB can prove whether it was.

If it wasn't advertised this is a totally legit claim.

AlterEgo said:

The OP claims the train wasn't advertised. Historic CCLDB can prove whether it was.

If it wasn't advertised this is a totally legit claim.

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If it wasn't in fact advertised then yes I agree.

What's CCLDB?

JakeF said:

If it wasn't in fact advertised then yes I agree.

What's CCLDB?

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An internal facing live departure board.

It seems likely you were waiting on platform 3 (where the next train was indeed the 1739), and did not realise the 1731 stopped on platform 1. So I don't think there is any point contacting GWR.

You should still be able to claim from CrossCountry though, as even if you originally intended to catch the 1850 from Reading, you would still have a 1 hour 24 min delay.

The problems started at Twyford. We arrived on time, but there was no 17:31 train at all. It doesn't exist. The screens showed the next train at 17:39.

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What screen did you look at - was it a "summary" screen that showed all departures with their platform numbers or did you just assume that your train would depart from the down relief platform and thus the screen you saw was the next departure from that platform i.e. the 17.39?

Mag_seven said:

What screen did you look at - was it a "summary" screen that showed all departures with their platform numbers or did you just assume that your train would depart from the down relief platform and thus the screen you saw was the next departure from that platform i.e. the 17.39?

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Yes, that's it, looks like my mistake there, as I was on platform 3 waiting for the usual train and the screen there only covers that platform.

I do feel pretty silly for missing the train at 17:31 since it must have gone through on time on the other side. I don't recall it being announced audibly though but it's quite a noisy station at times

greatkingrat said:

You should still be able to claim from CrossCountry though, as even if you originally intended to catch the 1850 from Reading, you would still have a 1 hour 24 min delay.

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Unless this was an advance specifically listing the 17:50.

robbeech said:

Unless this was an advance specifically listing the 17:50.

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No, just a off peak return with a railcard. I was originally planning to get the later train anyway, but got off work earlier than expected, but my ticket was still valid on later trains.

If the train really was not advertised, then claim from GWR, although they might argue that had you taken the next available trains your delay would have been 59 minutes.

If it was your mistake at Twyford, then you can claim from XC for some of the delay, based on you wanting to depart Reading after the 1807 had departed.

Once you got to Reading, it is puzzling that you didn't board the 1807 to Basingstoke. Being a turbo, there'd likely be no issue with the bike (and in the unlikely event of many bikes turning up and some being turned away, I suspect you'd get priority over local passengers if you showed your ticket and explained the journey you were making). This would have easily made the 1855 from Basingstoke (Portsmouth service) as far as Winchester, where you'd have had plenty of time before the 1930, which arrived Wareham at 2044.

If memory serves me correctly (and there were a lot of delays on SWT last week so I may be remembering the wrong instance). then part of the issue was that at Basingstoke the points had failed on 3 of the lines meaning that when I was there, there was a XC to Bournemouth, a Weymouth fast train (that wasn't booked to stop) and the Fareham/Poole stopper taking up 3 platforms until the points were fixed - so even if the OP had caught their original train they would have been delayed en-route in any case

bavvo said:

I stayed on until Bournemouth as I doubted the SWT connection at Winchester would be held, using the principle of get a close to the destination as I can whilst I can, and we arrived in Bournemouth around thirteen minutes late (20:24).

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This is a puzzling statement, as although the planned connection is into a following train, as Winchester is just a two platform station on a through line there is no possibility of a connection being held for a late running XC service to overtake there anyway. As you obviously realised you may as well stay on the XC until Bournemouth anyway - under normal circumstances the SWT Wareham service would still be following along behind.

I think (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) where you have overlapping routes like this the journey planners default to changing trains at the first opportunity along the line of route rather than the last.

[.n];2645271 said:

so even if the OP had caught their original train they would have been delayed en-route in any case

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That's irrelevant. Delay compensation is worked out on the basis of what happened to the journey, not what could have happened or may have happened if.

Since the OP made a mistake, this all becomes irrelevant as he did not catch the train he intended to due to an error.

I'm slightly surprised that the OP didn't spot the westbound 17:31 train that arrived on Platform 1 at Twyford and disgorged a large number of pasengers. It would be hard to avoid noticing it.

yorkie said:

Once you got to Reading, it is puzzling that you didn't board the 1807 to Basingstoke. Being a turbo, there'd likely be no issue with the bike (and in the unlikely event of many bikes turning up and some being turned away, I suspect you'd get priority over local passengers if you showed your ticket and explained the journey you were making). This would have easily made the 1855 from Basingstoke (Portsmouth service) as far as Winchester, where you'd have had plenty of time before the 1930, which arrived Wareham at 2044.

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Yes, that now looks like what I should have done, but at the time all I could remember was the Weymouth train didn't stop at Basingstoke, so If I got there I would then need a second connection which I had no details for. I don't have a smart phone, and the lady in the XC call centre couldn't give me any details either (it was a bad line and we had a lot of trouble understanding each other). I decided to just wait for an hour for the next XC train as it was a warm evening, and I wasn't in a huge rush, so 1 hour late would not matter so much. I'd written down the main connections on paper so I knew that the 18:50 should still get me there at a reasonable-ish time.
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FenMan said:

I'm slightly surprised that the OP didn't spot the westbound 17:31 train that arrived on Platform 1 at Twyford and disgorged a large number of pasengers. It would be hard to avoid noticing it.

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Well I was sitting on a bench looking the other way....

But actually even if I had seen it pull in and stop, I doubt I could have got up to the bridge via the lift (I had a fully laden pushbike), across, and down the lift to the other platform in time to catch it, and there's also a chance I would be refused as I had not booked the bike on an HST, as I wasn't expecting to use one for this leg of the journey.

Still, I know better for next time
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swt_passenger said:

This is a puzzling statement, as although the planned connection is into a following train, as Winchester is just a two platform station on a through line there is no possibility of a connection being held for a late running XC service to overtake there anyway. As you obviously realised you may as well stay on the XC until Bournemouth anyway - under normal circumstances the SWT Wareham service would still be following along behind.

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The Weymouth train would normally be 5 mins behind the XC one, but as the XC train was 15 mins late, the Weymouth one would most likely have already passed Basingstoke and be some 10 minutes ahead of the XC train when we reached Winchester, so I figured I could get off there and wait for an hour or so for the next one, or stay on until Bournemouth anyway. That was my thinking anyway.
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swt_passenger said:

I think (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) where you have overlapping routes like this the journey planners default to changing trains at the first opportunity along the line of route rather than the last.

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I assume the change is at Winchester normally because both trains use the same platform face, so it's easier for the passenger. Changing at a bigger station with more platforms could mean having to use an overbridge/subway

bavvo said:

I assume the change is at Winchester normally because both trains use the same platform face, so it's easier for the passenger. Changing at a bigger station with more platforms could mean having to use an overbridge/subway

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On the alternate half hours during the day when XC run through as far as Southampton they get you to change at Basingstoke onto the other Weymouth train that does stop at Basingstoke though...