That is probably a bit over the top.
The fault lies with LNER for allowing an LTP train to enter the system with base quotas attached, without cancelling them off (by making them nil) for the days on which the service was still in doubt, quotas to be re-activated later when the STP alterations for that day were uploaded.
I can imagine the confusion today at Glasgow with the Virgin staff looking at their daily sheet and not being able to make any sense of it. It’s not something that staff on the ground would often see. Again no marks to LNER for not realising that tickets had been sold for that train beforehand - decent quota managers would have spotted that one or maybe they did and just thought it was a system error? If they did, that would have been a very bad call.
A letter to the LNER MD is probably in order asking for an explanation as to why they allowed a ticket to be sold for a non-existent train and then made no effort to contact affected passengers.
I don't think it is over the top at all.
To me the most disappointing thing is that it is a nasty example of collective failure of the whole industry, right from journey planning to the day of the journey itself, rather than that of just one individual organisation.
Just taking the TOCs as an example, LNER are at fault for releasing quota on trains that aren't confirmed, despite it being one of the most likely for STP alterations, and network planning problems being widely publicised across the industry for months. All it required is an awareness that they are likely to be selling customers broken promises at a time when there is a higher chance of less experienced customers frequenting the network. Perhaps they did realise that, but still thought it better to put customers in that position, leaving them to sort things out nearer the time of travel (?!).
Virgin's failure to me appears more perplexing. Did they ever think of briefing their front-line staff what to do when a customer presents an apparently invalid but legitimately booked ticket for a seemingly non-existent service? Our lot had retail briefs (in theory) on that matter. Have theirs? This isn't an issue that only reared its head last few days. It has been a problem for months. What is Virgin's policy when their staff are the only ones on site to help and a customer seeks their help despite not technically being "their" customer? (Again I doubt this is a first occurrence as this isn't the first 2nd January they operated out of Glasgow Central.) Is there a helpline staff can ring to try and find out more information? Is there a contact number for LNER their Glasgow staff would be aware of? If not, is there a way for them to find out another TOC's contact number? What is Virgin's policy when a customer through no fault of their own is at risk of being stranded, when there is a perfectly reasonable alternative (Virgin services via London/Birmingham or CrossCountry via Edinburgh/York)? Do they train their staff to try various methods to at least get the customer on their way so that they could be better assisted at a more suitable location, or is their fallback policy to just tell the customer to buy a new ticket (possibly having to shell out hundreds of pounds before claiming it back)? There are so many things Virgin could have done to help the customer, almost certainly without the eventual outcome of the customer being stranded (which is effectively what happened here). Very poor show.
ScotRail are perhaps more excusable however they still could have blocked Advance quota on those services even if they are just connections if the timetable weren't finalised. This isn't normally an issue as there would be alternative services however they should have been well aware that STP alterations on 2nd January is standard fare with no alternatives at certain times of the day. Did they ever do any impact assessment of reduced planning timescale which were always forecast to last a good while? If they paid more than lip service to a customer-focused approach they would have.
This whole NR planning debacle in my opinion exposed right from the beginning a shocking lack of customer focus across the industry at many different TOCs (including my own at times if I may add). There seems to be an attitude in many quarters that Customer Relations would be able to sort out whatever issue the customer experienced, and compensate accordingly if needed. Far too often, both on and off this forum, I hear about incidents in which the customer is left to his or her own device through no fault of their own (and often the industry's). Unfortunately in many cases sorting things out afterwards is no good because sometimes you will not get a second chance to put things right again. Having a customer-oriented approach with real substance starts from the very beginning of the planning stage, including an awareness of factors that may impact on customer journey experience (including journey planning and ticket buying) - from the customer's perspective, and having suitable action plans to try and minimise, if not eliminate, any negative effect. The latter, in my experience, is sadly lacking in large parts of the industry.
While my comments can sometimes appear overly critical of the industry, and I do appreciate that sometimes mistakes are made as we are all human, it frustrates me hugely that despite the best efforts of many hardworking people genuinely wanting to improve the image of the industry and making it as pleasant as possible for the customers on their travels, far too frequently the industry cannot get some of the most basic things right, and often all it takes is an awareness and appreciation of the issues from the customer's perspective. More frustratingly in many cases for an eventual incident to occur, there would have been multiple smaller failures along the way, and the whole incident could have been avoided if just one of these small failures did not materialise.