Missed connections with long gap to booked TOC's next service

BRX said:

On that basis... Why have the thing about people having to wait for the next train from the booked operator at all? Why not just have a simple policy that if you miss a train due to a late connection, you board the next train to your destination regardless of operator. It would remove this ambiguous situation and improve people's general perception of rail travel.

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The thing is that apart from your scenario - which i doubt anyone at Scotrail would object to letting you get on the next service - is that most places that may have on or more TOCs serving it - lets say Preston - then theres quite regular tiemtable by both the intercity TOCs that serve it so i dont think it would be, there, unreasonable to wait for the next train by your TOC. Unless of course its late at night and only one more train to go or some other scenario that i cant think of off the top of my head.

And as many people have said - speaking to the guard will always get you an answer - whetehr its the right one or not is the hard part to guess but its their train.

A hypothetical situation here:

A passenger is taking a journey from Oxford to Bournemouth, using an XC Only ticket. The service they are on is cancelled at Southampton Central and everybody is turfed off the train. The next XC service to Bournemouth is an hour away, but there's a SWR service in ten minutes. As the passenger's ticket is marked 'XC Only', they presume that they need to wait the hour for the next XC service, so they do. Unbeknown to the passenger however, XC has arranged ticket acceptance with SWR.*

Say the second XC train has had a bit of a hold-up en route, and arrives into Bournemouth a few minutes late causing the passenger to arrive into Bournemouth over an hour than their original time. The passenger puts in a Delay Repay claim. Could XC refuse the claim on the grounds that if the passenger had taken the next SWR service to Bournemouth instead of waiting for the next XC service, they would have arrived only a few minutes late instead of over an hour?

(* This scenario is slightly based on truth - but I did not wait for the next XC service; my understanding at the time was that SWT (as was) and XC had a de facto automatic ticket acceptance in place in such a situation, and I did check with a member of platform staff and the SWT guard before boarding!)

Clip said:

The thing is that apart from your scenario - which i doubt anyone at Scotrail would object to letting you get on the next service - is that most places that may have on or more TOCs serving it - lets say Preston - then theres quite regular tiemtable by both the intercity TOCs that serve it so i dont think it would be, there, unreasonable to wait for the next train by your TOC. Unless of course its late at night and only one more train to go or some other scenario that i cant think of off the top of my head.

And as many people have said - speaking to the guard will always get you an answer - whetehr its the right one or not is the hard part to guess but its their train.

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I think there are many places where the gap to the next TOC-booked train is over an hour. The example given by @Par further upthread is one. This thread was actually prompted by my reading a comment (posted elsewher) by someone expressing frustration at having to wait for an hour plus while watching multiple trains by other operators depart. This is what platform staff had told them they must do. An hour is not an insignificant delay - indeed the fact that most delay repay schemes give you all your money back for such a delay seems to confirm this. Not everyone knows to ask the guard, they will take the advice that station staff give them.
While something like being asked to wait more than an hour or two may in practice be hypothetical, why not simply have clear guidance as to what should happen, so that neither staff nor passengers need be confused.

Y Ddraig Coch said:

The bold bit is the issue as discussed on another thread. Trying to get anyone to endorse anything these days is like getting blood out of a stone. Staff are always happy to tell you jump on the next train but to actually put their name to it is a different thing altogether.

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I find the stations with notoriously ill-trained gatelines (Paddington, Euston, ...) have information desks more willing than most to endorse tickets.

BRX said:

I think most people's experience is that common sense is generally applied, as you describe.

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Not always, though. I recall an occasion a few years ago when I had a two-leg journey on an Advance ticket: A Northern service from somewhere (I forget where) to York, then CrossCountry to Aberdeen. From Aberdeen I was due to catch a ferry.

Northern was late, naturally, so I asked a member of East Coast staff at York (this was a few years ago) if I could get the next East Coast train. She refused, and insisted I must wait what I remember as being about three hours for the next Crosscountry. She got quite aggressive and said it was my fault for taking the risk of buying a cheap ticket.

Had I waited for the next Crosscountry I would have missed my ferry in Aberdeen, and that ferry only ran twice a week...

Instead I asked the guard on the next East Coast, and he said "sure". So common sense did apply, but not with everybody.

I was thinking of this today while wondering whether to book the journey that a booking site suggested, using Northern and then Grand Central... and deciding "no, because Northern will be late and then the next Grand Central train will be hours later".

I think it can be quite variable. One example I witnessed yesterday - as it involved a train splitting from one I was on. The last SWR train of the day from Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads was cancelled - the 18.01. The guard said everyone to get GWR service at 18.42. I am presuming this was arranged - but as I was continuing on the Exeter portion of the train - not the cancelled Bristol portion - I can't report on whether things worked as they should