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Spirit of Scotland Caledonian Sleeper delay repay

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northken

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The 05.48 sleeper service this morning (09/08/18) failed to call at Glasgow Queen Street. The two of us are headed to Corrour (mate is a massive trainspotting fan).

We have the Spirit of Scotland rover ticket and plan to submit a delay repay claim. My concern is that Serco deny it, claiming it's invalid on their trains. The ScotRail website shows the line as valid on the map and there are no restrictions before 09.15, but it doesn't state Caledonian Sleeper as a participating TOC. However, it still lists East Coast as an operator, and they haven't existed for years so we put this down, perhaps naïvely, as just a webpage that hadn't been updated. Moreover, the National Rail page also states that it's valid on *all* scheduled services within Scotland.

What are the chances of this delay repay being successful? Many thanks for any help.
 
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AlterEgo

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Here’s an up to date page including LNER as an operator. Caledonian Sleeper aren’t listed as accepting the ticket. I’d have been surprised to see them included tbh.

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/tickets/combined-tickets-travel-passes/spirit-of-scotland

I’m pretty sure your ticket wasn’t valid and would therefore be rejected.

Train travel in Scotland – and journeys to and from Carlisle and Berwick-upon-Tweed with ScotRail, Virgin Trains, CrossCountry, LNER, and First TransPennine Express. On some lines you won't be able to travel at peak times
Click to expand...
 
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northken

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AlterEgo said:
Here’s an up to date page including LNER as an operator. Caledonian Sleeper aren’t listed as accepting the ticket. I’d have been surprised to see them included tbh.

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/tickets/combined-tickets-travel-passes/spirit-of-scotland

I’m pretty sure your ticket wasn’t valid and would therefore be rejected.
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Thanks for the reply. I definitely see where you're coming from. The mate is arguing that it's that same page, in the FAQs on where you can travel, that lists East Coast.

I don't think we have much of a chance but I think the "all" on the NRE page is quite misleading. The Queen Street ticket office implied that it was valid. They even attempted to book a reservation for us.

I understand it's besides the point, but I see no reason why Serco wouldn't want to be a participant when all the other TOCs are. Then again, that may just be because we're miffed that we had to get up so early for a train that didn't even call.
 
Rover

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In his rail rover article for Rail magazine earlier this year Barry Doe states that it is "valid on the seated portion of 04.50 Caledonian Sleeper Edinburgh to Fort William", and Barry Doe is in the know about these things.
 
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northken

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Rover said:
In his rail rover article for Rail magazine earlier this year Barry Doe states that it is "valid on the seated portion of 04.50 Caledonian Sleeper Edinburgh to Fort William", and Barry Doe is the know about these things.
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Oh right, the plot thickens! This just shows the websites and staff need to be more clear on this. Even on the Glasgow subway they didn't have a clue what it was and we had to kindly insist they look it up.
 
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yorkie

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northken said:
The 05.48 sleeper service this morning (09/08/18) failed to call at Glasgow Queen Street. The two of us are headed to Corrour (mate is a massive trainspotting fan).
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Oh dear, there won't be many spotting opportunities there!
northken said:
We have the Spirit of Scotland rover ticket and plan to submit a delay repay claim. My concern is that Serco deny it, claiming it's invalid on their trains.
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For the ticket to be invalid, it would have to state so on the ticket and this would need to be made clear at the time of purchase.

Arguably there is no need to rely on a list of operators on the NRE website, though I agree with you that the list is out of date.

Caledonian Sleeper are very keen to avoid being part of National Rail for ticketing purposes so I am not surprised they deny it.

They've told me all sorts of untruths recently too. They're notorious!

If they could withdraw from the Ticketing Settlement Agreement to avoid accepting all National Rail tickets altogether, I'm sure they would!
 
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Darandio

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yorkie said:
Oh dear, there won't be many spotting opportunities there!

Caledonian Sleeper are very keen to avoid being part of National Rail for ticketing purposes so I am not surprised they deny it.

They've told me all sorts of untruths recently too. They're notorious!
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Except they haven't denied it as no claim has been submitted yet.
 
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paddington

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If they intend to deny the claim, then won't they also think that you didn't have a valid ticket to travel at all?
 
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Hadders

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There is nothing to suggest that the Spirit if Scotland Rover isn’t valid on Caledonian Sleeper services.

However, officially the sleeper is ‘reservations compulsory’ although getting Caledonian Sleeper to issue a reservation for the seated sleeper between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Firt William is all but impossible.

Did you have a reservation?
 
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northken

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Hadders said:
There is nothing to suggest that the Spirit if Scotland Rover isn’t valid on Caledonian Sleeper services.

However, officially the sleeper is ‘reservations compulsory’ although getting Caledonian Sleeper to issue a reservation for the seated sleeper between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Firt William is all but impossible.

Did you have a reservation?
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Tl;dr nope

We tried to get one from Glasgow Central ticket office and travel centre. They weren't having any of it. Once they heard sleeper they treated us like the plague. Queen Street were better and attempted to, but they couldn't find any spaces so said we should just turn up and try to get on. Rang up Caledonian and they said we didn't need one.

May I ask why you believe it to be valid? Thanks
 
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northken

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An update on this. Serco have accepted the claim as being over 60 minutes (it was two and a half hours) and are paying out £22.94, 25% of the Rover's price (with railcard discount). Thanks for everyone's help.
 
jumble

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AlterEgo said:
Here’s an up to date page including LNER as an operator. Caledonian Sleeper aren’t listed as accepting the ticket. I’d have been surprised to see them included tbh.

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/tickets/combined-tickets-travel-passes/spirit-of-scotland

I’m pretty sure your ticket wasn’t valid and would therefore be rejected.
Click to expand...


Wow this is badly worded and a complete mess

Should one interpret it to mean it mean
(Train travel in Scotland) –
and (journeys to and from Carlisle and Berwick-upon-Tweed with ScotRail, Virgin Trains, CrossCountry, LNER, and First TransPennine Express.) On some lines you won't be able to travel at peak times
or
(Train travel in Scotland – and journeys to and from Carlisle and Berwick-upon-Tweed)

with ScotRail, Virgin Trains, CrossCountry, LNER, and First TransPennine Express. On some lines you won't be able to travel at peak times

( In view of the fact that The OP was were compensated it clearly means the former although the Jacobite is presumably excluded to add to the confusion !)

National rail claims


Regards Jumble
 
Haywain

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northken said:
Even on the Glasgow subway they didn't have a clue what it was and we had to kindly insist they look it up.
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I don't believe the Spirit of Scotland rover is valid on the Glasgow subway or ever has been.
 
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