Cancellation Euston to Chesterfield on a LNR&XC ticket but Virgin wouldn't help

A friend was travelling from Euston to Chesterfield on a LNR&XC ticket which implies a change at Tamworth.

She was aiming for the 1946 service from Euston but that was cancelled beyond Rugby. There was then no way of making that journey on LNR&XC as far as I know.

a. At around 1930, she asked at the Virgin ticket office in Euston for advice, but they sent her to the LNR office
b. She tried to queue at the LNR office but gave up as it was extremely busy and only one person working
c. She enquired at the gateline for the Virgin 1940 service (first stop Tamworth) which was running more or less on time but they declined to let her travel on that service
d. Rather than miss the train to Rugby, she got on it with the hope of some other solution at Rugby - but there wasn't one other than wait for the next LNR train (which arrives too late for the last XC service to Chesterfield)

My questions about that are:

1. Were the Virgin ticket office right to refuse to help given that the ticket was not purely LNR, time was getting late, and one of their trains could solve the problem?
2. What would the LNR office have done?
3. Would there have been any point in her going to St Pancras and asking nicely to travel with EMT, either for free or an excess?

1) Yes. Virgin are under 0 obligation to you I'm afraid.
2) They have to ensure you can either get home that night (200 mile taxi if necessary) or put you up in hotel. I expect the advice would have been to go to Tamworth and get a paid for taxi.
3) They, like Virgin are under 0 obligation. You should always get in contact with the relevent TOC even if that's going to require a long queue. I'd have recommended going to Rugby and either talking to the guard on the train or finding a member of LNWR staff at Rugby.

It was still possible for her to get home by train; to Derby on LNR&XC and on a late EMT train (0054?) on to Chesterfield. (Sorry for any confusion).

higthomas said:

1) Yes. Virgin are under 0 obligation to you I'm afraid.

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That's completely incorrect. The National Rail Conditions of Travel clearly state that any train company which is able to assist a passenger must do so, when disruption would leave that passenger stranded.

Condition 28.2 said:

Where disruption prevents you from completing the journey for which your ticket is valid and is being used, any Train Company will, where it reasonably can, provide you with alternative means of travel to your destination, or if necessary provide overnight accommodation for you.

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higthomas said:

3) They, like Virgin are under 0 obligation.

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Again, that's not correct, as EMT are a train company in a position to help.

On the rare occasions I have major disruption, where at all possible I go to the station manager's office - in fact staff have sent me there. The station manager tends in my experience to be experienced and competent in the rules and will write a letter outlining the actions needed, e.g. please pass this ticket on these services for this reason...

Merseysider said:

That's completely incorrect. The National Rail Conditions of Travel clearly state that any train company which is able to assist a passenger must do so, when disruption would leave that passenger stranded.


Again, that's not correct, as EMT are a train company in a position to help.

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Hmm, so I am. Sorry Ankleboots.
This does seem to be an oft ignored condition (see this thread for an example)

Nothing wrong with sending her on her way as far as she could go, then make alternative arrangements where needed.

If it were only one train cancelled then Virgin were under no obligation to allow her travel on an invalid service unless it risks her being stranded, which is not the case at Euston, and it looks like she did have other options after all.

It sounds like the choice was between validating the customer to use Virgin as far as Tamworth or Birmingham so that they could comply with the XC restriction for the remainder of their journey, OR forcing the customer to use West Midlands Trains operated services as far as Tamworth, which then result in EMT being required to convey the customer for the last section of the journey into Sheffield.

Knowing Virgin Trains as well as I do, I am not surprised at the course of action they took. Hopefully customers will remember how they treat people when deciding whether or not to book with them and/or to travel with them.

That said, I would always approach the Train Manager anyway (if you can access them; this is admittedly not always possible at Euston!) as many Virgin Trains TMs are reasonable people who take a pragmatic view, even when their employer does not.

However if the passenger would otherwise have ended up not being able to complete the journey by rail, then I would strongly argue that Virgin (and any other company) should in that case convey the passenger by alternative services, as per the NRCoT.