Disrupted travel advice - TfW/Heart of Wales line

[bluegoblin7]

Hi all!

Just looking to open up some thoughts to the table following an incredibly poor experience on the Heart of Wales line - probably my worst travelling experience ever, tbh. Mainly looking for some advice/suggestions on what to say to poke TfW into action, although as rail staff my expectations are already on the floor.

To surmise, as briefly as possible:
-1122 Shrewsbury-Swansea cancelled at 1120 due to a technical fault. Fair enough. Bus replacement promised - great!
-1205 - replacement coach turns up. Was advised by station staff x2 and TfW social media it would stop at Llanbister Road. Driver said not what he was told, but was then assured again by staff and the driver given a list of requested stops.
-1350 (approx) - predictably, bus sails straight past the turning. Not surprised and was expecting it given the size of the coach to the road.
-1415 - arrive Llandrindod. No trains. Social media and station staff insisting there's buses, naming the one I'd just got off. Coach driver says he's now going empty back to Shrewsbury.
-1450 (approx) - taxis authorised by TfW control for myself and two other travellers. Given a 25 min eta
-1515 - eta comes and goes... no taxis, no buses, no trains. Station staff was fab.
-1720 - my taxi turns up. Encouraged by all to get in and go to Llanbister Road as no sign of train...
-1722 - ...Shrewsbury train turns up, leaves, overtakes taxi
-1742 - arrive Llanbister Road two mins after train, ultimately missing last London connection via Birmingham. Station with no signal, train not for another 90 mins, impending storm... (Original eta was 1234)
-1917 - Swansea train arrives. Board. Head for Llandovery (where thankfully I have a friend) - guard permits travel at no additional cost (return from London to LLanbister Road held)... train immediately gets halted and then cautioned for flooding (thankfully only a brief pause!)

What I will say is all customer facing staff I've spoken to today have been fantastic and I don't think any of this is of their making. Equaliy the social media team have done their best at each juncture. It seems to be a big breakdown between control and suppliers - it turns out that the advice had changed at around 1600 to just wait for the next train, but this was never communicated to any of us at Llandrindod. The coach I arrived on also passed through, loaded, at about 1615. By the time any of us noticed/realised it was in the distance (this may have been a coincidence but I suspect not).

Now, my immediate problem is tomorrow morning getting from Llandovery to Llanbister Road. I'd rather not buy a ticket but don't really have the energy to tell this tale again. Given I've saved TfW a big hassle of getting me back to London I don't think this is too much to ask, but I know the railway... so I suspect I will part with cash. Fine. Is what it is.

Which leads me to the crux: I can, of course, get back delay repay for both legs of my journey between London and Llanbister Road - what is the wisdom around this, recognising that according to the scheme I should get 200% of my fare paid? I've often hypothesised but never been in the situation before. I also think it fair that whatever I spend tomorrow morning be added to that too. Finally, accepting that there's a greater chance of pigs flying through a frozen hell, what's the likelihood of receiving any additional compensation? I'm aware some TOCs have been known to offer e.g. a day rover in such situations - are TfW known for owning their problems? I think I know the answer.

Tl;dr: railway's done a railway.

Advice and suggestions welcomed.

 

[Intercity Guy]

Good luck with that.

I was on the HOWL a few weeks ago travelling from Llangammarch to Shrewsbury on a Saturday. Was supposed to get the 16:23 and get back to Shrewsbury at 18:30.
Train was cancelled at Llandovery and the one to Swansea was turned back at Llandrindod leaving passengers between Llandovery and Llandrindod with a 4 hour plus wait, no mention on their website or feeds about alternative transport or anything, luckily I got 2 buses and a train from Newtown and got back to Shrewsbury at 21:20. i'm just lucky i wasn't heading back to london or further afield.

I contacted Tfw and they gave their usual apologies and excuses about the line being remote and buses and taxis hard to come by which I get but said i wasn't eligible for compensation as i didn't have a ticket because i hadn't purchased one beforehand, no selling facilities at Llangammarch so was going to buy from conductor but couldn't as train didn't turn up.

Until the Class 153s (dogboxes) get replaced i'm afraid these sorts of things will be happening more regularly and as Tfw told me these are the only trains compatible with the signalling system (technically wrong as 150s run as well) it won't be anytime soon.

 

[Starmill]

what is the wisdom around this, recognising that according to the scheme I should get 200% of my fare paid? I've often hypothesised but never been in the situation before. I also think it fair that whatever I spend tomorrow morning be added to that too. Finally, accepting that there's a greater chance of pigs flying through a frozen hell, what's the likelihood of receiving any additional compensation? I'm aware some TOCs have been known to offer e.g. a day rover in such situations - are TfW known for owning their problems? I think I know the answer.

Tl;dr: railway's done a railway.

Advice and suggestions welcomed.

By far the most likely scenario is that you get back the fare you paid and not a penny more. If you make a claim under Delay Repay, it could also be argued by the operator that you have partly surrendered your right to damages in respect of ruining your day out. I wouldn't agree with that take but they could deploy it.

Trying to recover your losses in excess of the face value of your ticket will be laborious and time-intensive. Likely you'd need to begin litigation if that were your goal.

 

[island]

By far the most likely scenario is that you get back the fare you paid and not a penny more. If you make a claim under Delay Repay, it could also be argued by the operator that you have partly surrendered your right to damages in respect of ruining your day out. I wouldn't agree with that take but they could deploy it.

Trying to recover your losses in excess of the face value of your ticket will be laborious and time-intensive. Likely you'd need to begin litigation if that were your goal.

I agree with this assessment. The DelayRepay scheme explicitly says repayment is capped at the price of the ticket. You have the right to claim under the NRCOT or the Consumer Rights Act if you prefer, but you can only recover once for your loss – in other words, you have to pick one claim route and forgo the other two.

 

[Starmill]

I agree with this assessment. The DelayRepay scheme explicitly says repayment is capped at the price of the ticket. You have the right to claim under the NRCOT or the Consumer Rights Act if you prefer, but you can only recover once for your loss – in other words, you have to pick one claim route and forgo the other two.

Indeed. If the OP did want to attempt to recover more than the face value of their ticket, they could always attempt to set out an assessment of their damages and estimate their value. It sounds like they could have reasonable evidence behind them, although only they will know that. They could work out how many hours they think they lost, and apply a reasonable means of valuing them. Then they could consider the strength of the link from the technical problem with the train and the loss they suffered.

If there's a big enough difference between this number and the face value of the tickets it might be worthwhile for them, but they should also consider carefully how much hassle and time they want to put into trying to claim. They may conclude that the relatively quick and straightforward process of claiming for Delay Repay is a better deal for them. It could help to think of Delay Repay in cases of the most severe disruption as exchanging some of the compensation that might have been due for convenience and speed of repayment.

 

[Haywain]

From what has been said, I am not clear on how Llanbister Road fitted in to the OP's plans. Without this clarity, claiming Delay Repay or anything else could be complicated.

 

[TPO]

It is actually true that coaches and taxis are hard to come by in that area. It really is very rural.

It can be a better option to look at local and cross-Wales scheduled bus services. For example, only 4 trains a day between Swansea and Ammanford but the X13 bus runs hourly Swansea to Llandeilo via Ammanford and stops outside Swansea High Street Station, it runs weekends too and quite late into the evening.

Of course it depends what you are doing but remember there is a reason why most people who live in mid Wales drive a car.

I have a level of sympathy for TfW, they inherited a dogs breakfast of a franchise which had been heavily reliant on Pacers and the previous franchise hadn't ordered and new rolling stock.

TPO