For your information, I wrote to SWR about the journey I endured during the recent RMT strike. I had an advance ticket booked before the strike was called - they said all delays will be judged on revised timetable.
A load of tosh, but it's difficult to see a way in which TOCs can be forced to stop lying about their contractual duties. Whether or not the individual person writing the letter/message knows that it is a lie or not, ultimately they represent the company and it is the company that is lying at the end of the day.
I was told to travel early by SWR.
That was the only way that on-time arrival could be guaranteed without you incurring out of pocket expenditure in the short-term, yes. However you were by no means obliged to do this and you could equally have turned up at the booked departure time, albeit this may have caused a not insubstantial delay.
I asked about going via GWR and they said no via social media (but see the response, apparently this was approved but not properly publicised - there was nothing on their website, NRE site or Journey Check re the ticket acceptance).
Ah, so they breached your contract, made you have a longer journey than contracted... and then don't think it's appropriate to compensate you for this, or the fact that they failed to publicise acceptance arrangements? It's astounding how some people can write some drivel and not take a moment to step back and think what they're writing. As long as TOCs don't have an incentive to get Customer Service interactions right
first time (e.g. through significant financial penalties) this nonsense is going to continue.
They also run trains non-stop from Exeter Central to Honiton and then sat at Yeovil Junction for 15 minutes, time which could have been used to spare us all bus journeys.
As much as I agree that you have been needlessly inconvenienced, this is one area that might appear to be more complex than meets the eye. The timetable for the West of England Line is not entirely simple, due to the numerous single line sections, so it's entirely possible (I'm not in possession of the facts to determine this) that non-stop running was required to make the strike timetable work at all, with the resources available.
I thought I'd post their response just so people can see how badly some companies deal with issues. I don't have the time or inclination to go to the Ombudsman - and I don't think I'd have a case anyway, given I went earlier than my train (on orders) so wasn't delayed.
I certainly think you have a case, based on the multiple failures and breaches, and it costs nothing other than your time to go to the Ombudsman, but I appreciate that not everyone fancies doing this kind of thing. If you do want to take it to the Ombudsman I'm happy to proofread any draft you have.
