Altrincham to Huyton ticket during Northern Rail Strikes

[LisaH]

This morning I bought a single Anytime ticket dated today from the ticket office at Altrincham Station for my daughter to travel from Manchester Victoria to Huyton. No mention was made of rail strikes (although I am sure there were posters on display). When she got to Victoria she found out that there were no direct trains. Her ticket was rejected and she had to buy a new ticket. (In fact she bought a single to Liverpool and then her father picked her up.)
As I understand it her ticket has no validity - if it was an Advance it would be honoured for going into Liverpool and out again but as it was bought this morning it wasn't valid.
I know I should be able to get a refund from Altrincham but this seems crazy. How was I able to buy a ticket that had no validity?

 

[_toommm_]

There should have been ticket acceptance - Huyton had trains from Lime Street to Wigan NW so you could have travelled to either and essentially doubled back to Huyton.

 

[johntea]

With the greatest of respect, RMT have been striking the past several months on a Saturday so I'm surprised your daughter wasn't aware of that!

 

[yorksrob]

But really, ticket acceptance via any non-northern route should have been allowed.

 

[_toommm_]

It would be helpful if we knew which route she took instead - unless she went a massively circuitous route there should have been ticked acceptance.

 

[sheff1]

There are more questions than answers here.

In normal circumstances the direct trains from Manchester to Huyton run from Piccadilly or Oxford Rd so why did she go to Victoria in the first place ?

When she did get to Victoria, how was the ticket "rejected" exactly ? A ticket from Manchester Stations to Huyton is certainly valid from Victoria - in normal circumstances a passenger from Victoria could change at Newton-le-Willows.

Who told her the ticket had "no validity" ?

 

[LisaH]

I bought the ticket - I did know about the strikes but was in a rush and just bought a ticket from the office without thinking to ask! No idea why she went to Victoria - very valid question - she is 12 and was travelling with her older brother who organised it. Since there are more questions than answers here and being at a strange choice of station can't have helped I will see if I can get the money back for the original ticket and let this drop

 

[_toommm_]

It would help us to help you if you told us the planned itinerary versus what your daughter actually did, so we could possibly explain what happened and to give advice for the future.

I fear it may be an uphill battle to claim it back if you bought knowing there were strikes - Northern have been bad recently with delay repays for strike days when they've been telling season ticket holders to claim every Saturday.

 

[yorksrob]

With the greatest of respect, RMT have been striking the past several months on a Saturday so I'm surprised your daughter wasn't aware of that!

When I mention the strike to a lot of people, their reaction is "Is that still going on ?"

 

[robbeech]

Regardless of knowing, would it not make sense for ticket office staff to BRIEFLY remind passengers when they purchase a ticket?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Regardless of knowing, would it not make sense for ticket office staff to BRIEFLY remind passengers when they purchase a ticket?

It would help, but if Northern management is so grossly incompetent that they are still selling Advances for trains they know full well are not going to exist (don't know about you, but I call that "fraud") you can't really expect too much, can you?

They probably can't stop the online sites selling walk-ups, but they should at least block all the quotas. And yes, a staffed ticket office should know better.

 

[robbeech]

It would help, but if Northern management is so grossly incompetent that they are still selling Advances for trains they know full well are not going to exist (don't know about you, but I call that "fraud") you can't really expect too much, can you?

They probably can't stop the online sites selling walk-ups, but they should at least block all the quotas. And yes, a staffed ticket office should know better.

A couple of points on this. They generally do stop selling the advances the minute the strike is officially confirmed. I appreciate that we know the strike is going on essentially forever, but until it is officially announced they will keep selling advances but DO seem to stop when it’s confirmed. I don’t agree with it, it’s causing so much hassle for customers, but this is how they’re playing it.

Secondly, they CAN, remove all services from timetables on Saturdays for the foreseeable future. Then they can insert the few that will run. That way people can’t buy walk up tickets, nor can they buy toc and connection tickets, like London to Harrogate on anything but the direct LNER.
They won’t do this, someone said they would be in breach of their franchise agreement but surely this is just a poorly thought out agreement. Surely the benefit to the customers by doing this is worthy of this kind of exception.

 

[LisaH]

It would help us to help you if you told us the planned itinerary versus what your daughter actually did, so we could possibly explain what happened and to give advice for the future.

I fear it may be an uphill battle to claim it back if you bought knowing there were strikes - Northern have been bad recently with delay repays for strike days when they've been telling season ticket holders to claim every Saturday.

Right, with the advantage of having heard the full story
As my son wasn't sure on times, the plan was to get into Manchester and get the next direct train to Huyton.
When they got to Piccadilly (not Victoria though they appear to have tried Victoria and then got a tram to Piccadilly!) they were told that my daughter's single ticket for Manchester Stations to Huyton was invalid and she was sold another one from Manchester to Liverpool Lime Street where their father picked them up.
This morning I went to Altrincham station. Initially I was told that they couldn't refund me and I'd need to write to Northern Rail but I asked them to double-check and Northern authorised Altrincham to give a full refund for the original ticket. It all appears to have worked out OK in the end!

[My son had a single ticket from Manchester Stations to Huyton on his phone - as he hadn't noticed that he had been sold a ticket for Sunday rather than Saturday he changed his at Piccadilly paying an admin charge- all seemed fine]

 

[Starmill]

It would help, but if Northern management is so grossly incompetent that they are still selling Advances for trains they know full well are not going to exist (don't know about you, but I call that "fraud") you can't really expect too much, can you?

They do zero the Advance ticket quota when a strike is announced by the next working day at the latest usually. They don't take the trains out of the timetable in general until around a week or a week and a half in advance.

An appropriate Advance ticket can be sold against a non-reservable Northern train throughout this time, because there is no quota control on these, and they are still shown in the normal timetable.

I have moved some of what I was going to post here to a new thread.