Advance ticket & rail replacement buses

If you have an advance ticket but the 1st part of the journey will be a rail replacement bus due to engineering works what is the situation? If you get a bus at the time on the ticket you will end up on a train that will get to your destination much later than the planned train. Does the ticket become valid on other services so as to get you there on time?

Thanks

404250 said:

If you have an advance ticket but the 1st part of the journey will be a rail replacement bus due to engineering works what is the situation? If you get a bus at the time on the ticket you will end up on a train that will get to your destination much later than the planned train. Does the ticket become valid on other services so as to get you there on time?

Thanks

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Do you mean that the timetable has changed since you bought your ticket? If so, whilst strictly speaking you should stick to all services for which you have a reservation, in practice staff are likely to authorise travel on earlier services if you explain the situation. Alternatively, you can get a fee-free refund of your ticket (since there has been a material variation of contract since you bought the tickets), and buy a new ticket for the earlier service.

Unfortunately there is no absolute right to take any trains necessary to arrive at the contracted time - it is merely that if you are delayed, you can (subject to minimum delay thresholds) claim delay compensation.

What was the timetable when you bought your ticket?

If the RRB was already timetabled, then your itinerary should already take account of buses being slower than trains, and (usual problems aside) your booked itinerary should work.

If the RRB was scheduled after you made your booking, my understanding is that you can turn up to your starting point for your booked time, and will be within your rights to insist that you can travel on later trains than your itinerary says.

FWIW, the one time I have been in this position, I left the origin early as (a) it was quite important to be home on time and (b) it was easier to be on an earlier bus (whose driver was happy to see that I had any ticket rather than checking it in detail) than to argue my rights with railway staff the whole way through the rest of my journey.

Yes timetable will change. It still says train but with a note that buses will be running on that day. Getting an earlier bus seems the easiest option as can't be late at destination. It seems unlikely there'll be a bus at exactly the time the train was due to leave anyway.

404250 said:

Yes timetable will change. It still says train but with a note that buses will be running on that day. Getting an earlier bus seems the easiest option as can't be late at destination. It seems unlikely there'll be a bus at exactly the time the train was due to leave anyway.

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If you're willing and able to give us the date and train details, we can lookup the timetable history and see exactly what's changed and when.

11th May SWT 12.51 Bristol - London

That's currently still showing as a through train all the way and has not been altered since first published. NRE is reporting that buses will replace trains here. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for them to update the timetable data, because right now you'll be getting that journey for free (booking on the given itinerary, getting delayed, claiming compensation). Might as well go first class then!

Ah, that would be the changes described here on National Rail Enquiries, a closure between Bristol Temple Meads and Westbury. It's very disappointing that SWR have yet to reflect this closure in their timetables - let alone in their own planned engineering works page - and that they are still letting people book Advances on trains that they (ought to) know cannot possibly run. I would go so far as to say it is highly irresponsible and represents a very lax attitude to delivering on what they say.

As stated - if you insist on getting to your destination on time then your only option is to leave earlier. The good news is that, since replacement buses aren't reservable, you will be able to take an earlier bus than your originally booked departure time, and one hopes that you will then be able to pick up the original train at Westbury, but it's anyone's guess as to whether or not the train will run normally from there.

Alternatively, if you have yet to pick up your tickets then, if you do so at an LNER ticket machine, this will only print something along the lines of "Valid on reserved services shown below and required connecting services" on it, and then the booked service (without evening mentioning the company). There is nothing on there that shows that it is an SWR Advance ticket - and so I don't see that a GWR guard would have any basis to object to you using their services, because there is no company restriction printed on the ticket (and, though less relevant, they both have a common parent company - First - so it would seem the "done thing" to arrange ticket acceptance).

Thanks. Already have ticket that says SWT only though. Might contact them nearer the time and see what they can offer me - otherwise it will be a ridiculously long journey leaving on earlyeenough bus to connectcat westbury and arrive on time.