Either the FRPP is wrong or the advertising of the ticket is wrong. But the ticket has to be valid 'as advertised', and it is advertised as being valid on services that only EMT provide.
EMT don't really have any option but to accept it, although they could waste money losing a court case if they chose to.
The private arrangements between EMT and whoever is responsible for the ticket is none of the passenger's business.
But the ticket is NOT advertised as being valid on all lines listed on the map. It clearly states within both the FRPP and on the National Rail website (the latter of which is updated weekly) that the ticket is only "Valid on the services of the following Operators".
I do agree the map is slightly misleading and could lead to questions of why are the lines such as Matlock even listed on the map in the first place. But unfortunately the wording is very clear about what is and what is not valid with this particular ticket. Members of this forum seem to be viewing the map as the only condition related to the ticket without taking into consideration the accompanying wording.
dan_atki said:
A can of worms is opened, therefore, when the Northern website (through the aforementioned link) state that their rovers are valid on all companies' services in the area with the exception of Grand Central, Hull Trains, and Wrexham & Shropshire.
But the C&P Rover is not a Northern's product. They did not implement the fare and therefore have no responsibility for this fare. They can not dictate the terms of the rover, this is an ATOC function.
Even if we move into the terms of hypotheticals and this product was not under ATOC remit, why should Northern even be thought of as the lead operator of the product anyway, ATW run services over the rover's area just as heavily as Northern do.
dan_atki said:
I'm also not sure how much of a role ATOC have with rovers and rangers (other than the All Line). FGW are in charge (as far as I'm aware) of promoting and setting the fare for all the rovers/rangers mentioned on their rover page. Indeed, there are printed leaflets too... produced by FGW.
As far as I am aware ATOC are responsible for all multi-operator 'Regional' Rail Rovers ( ones that offer travel for a number of consecutive days within a specific geographic area) and all 'Flexi' Rail Rovers (ones that offer travel for a set number of days within a set period (i.e. 3 in 7 days) within a specific geographic area).
Individual operators however seem to be able to alter the validity on their particular services of any Rover they have agreed to accept, this has been seen in a few past Newsrail Express bulletins.
I have no specific information on Rangers and thus cannot comment on the pricing and restrictions responsibilities for these products.