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Travel Between London Terminals During Disruption

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alistairlees

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I'm very much aware of the data that's available on the operations and infrastructure side of things. However, on the customer PII side of things it very much is secret and unique to the TOC that has collected it. There are potential data-sharing issues there - are they insurmountable? No. But they do exist.
Perhaps we are both experts. Sending out an email to warn of a change to an itinerary though is a thing that should happen the day before. This only needs DTD and Darwin data to be effected. Additional info is indeed in TOCs' own systems (though is much more interlinked with Darwin these days), but this is generally about 'on the day' things. There is no need to share data that isn't already freely available to do what is suggested here.
 
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Haywain

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Why did the itinerary show a change at Farringdon in the first place, and not at King's Cross St Pancras? There are more underground lines to choose from at King's Cross St Pancras than at Farringdon (so more chance of still being able to complete the journey if there is engineering work, without the need to tell the passenger anything has changed). It's a shorter journey time, both on the train to London, and on the tube journey, if using King's Cross St Pancras. It seems like a much better choice of station to show in itineraries than Farringdon?
Because Farringdon is a far better change from the Thameslink and Great Northern suburban routes when going to Paddington. Subject to everything running normally it is far easier, with a cross platform connection in one direction and just a footbridge to negotiate in the other, and quicker by eliminating much of the interchange time at Kings Cross or St Pancras. And no ticket barriers to negotiate at Farringdon.
 

Haywain

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All retailers (whether train operator or third party) have access to the same information regarding scheduled train times, rescheduled train times, and disruption information, via the same few data feeds (namely the DTD feed and the Darwin feed) that would enable the things that Hadders and I are suggesting are done, to be done. I don't think the development cost need be huge, although handling the many edge cases (especially where TOCs / Network Rail are used to continually changing data right up to departure because it doesn't currently matter) is a challenge.
The onus is surely on retailers rather than TOCs to be providing the information. If one retailer does it, others will follow as they would not want out miss out on a selling point. It just needs one to develop a solution and put it into use.
 

Clip

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The onus is surely on retailers rather than TOCs to be providing the information. If one retailer does it, others will follow as they would not want out miss out on a selling point. It just needs one to develop a solution and put it into use.
Yeah its not going to be the hard surely to write a script that when changes may occur to someones journey cross london to email those with said tickets about possible disruption.
 

Llanigraham

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Yeah its not going to be the hard surely to write a script that when changes may occur to someones journey cross london to email those with said tickets about possible disruption.

But that still will not work with someone who either buys their tickets from a third party supplier such as Trainline or Red Spotted Hanky, or from a ticket office.
Plus if bought from say TfW online they will have to be able to ensure that TfW are able to firstly read the information they supply and are able to pass it on to their customers, meaning more work for TfW; who will pay for that?
And no TfW can't give TfL the passengers' details under GDPR.
 

Haywain

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Yeah its not going to be the hard surely to write a script that when changes may occur to someones journey cross london to email those with said tickets about possible disruption.
I think that would be a lot harder than emailing those people who have purchased tickets for a specific date, really narrowed down by journey or TOCs being used.
 

Hadders

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But that still will not work with someone who either buys their tickets from a third party supplier such as Trainline or Red Spotted Hanky, or from a ticket office.
Plus if bought from say TfW online they will have to be able to ensure that TfW are able to firstly read the information they supply and are able to pass it on to their customers, meaning more work for TfW; who will pay for that?
And no TfW can't give TfL the passengers' details under GDPR.

Why can’t the retailer tell me if there’s a change?

They gave me the itinerary in the first place.

As for GDPR SNCF and Eurostar manage to get around it...
 

Clip

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But that still will not work with someone who either buys their tickets from a third party supplier such as Trainline or Red Spotted Hanky, or from a ticket office.

I didnt say it would but the trainline and RSH can still use somethign similar

I think that would be a lot harder than emailing those people who have purchased tickets for a specific date, really narrowed down by journey or TOCs being used.

Not really - all you need is a database that lines up the passenger with set timetable data and if any of that changes when enters it triggers an email to all affected passengers.
 

Belperpete

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Why can’t the retailer tell me if there’s a change?

They gave me the itinerary in the first place.

As for GDPR SNCF and Eurostar manage to get around it...
Exactly, it is up to the retailer to inform the customer. They have sold the customer a particular itinerary, so it is up to them to inform the customer if that itinerary is no longer possible. That applies whether you buy your ticket direct from the TOC you will be travelling with, from a different TOC, or from a third-party retailer - it should be whoever you bought your ticket from who tells you. The same applies when you buy flight from a travel agent: that agent has a responsibility for advising you of any changes.

If you buy your ticket anonymously from a booking office, then of course there is no way of contacting you. But that is no reason for not contacting those who have bought on-line and given their contact details.
 

Belperpete

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I've never had an email from an airline warning me of problems beyond the airport boundary/access, but perhaps I don't fly often enough.
I have received a couple of emails from airlines advising me to go to the airport earlier than usual due to problems of one sort or another. Probably depends which airline you fly with. Easyjet I think do this.
 
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