MichaelTrains
Member
Hello everyone, I was just wonder what is the best advice regarding my dispute with LNER over an incident that happened yesterday.
Me and my friend were due to catch the 19:48 Grand Central train to Bradford Interchange.
On arrival at London Kings Cross at around 19:25 we noticed it was cancelled.
Because our earlier train in the morning, the 8:23 one from Brighouse was cancelled, we instinctively knew as per that journey down to London, that we would have to get an LNER service to complete our journey.
At King Cross we asked a member of LNER staff who was standing in-between platforms three and four what we should do as we couldn't find any member of Grand Central staff to assist us.
We were advised to by this member of staff to get on the 19:33 Leeds train which was due to depart and sit in coach C which was the unreserved coach for this LNER service and to explain our situation to the train manager when the ticket check took place.
We boarded the train at 19:31 with two minutes to spare and sat down in two unreserved seats.
Whilst on the train, the ticket check took place just after Doncaster and we were told we weren't entitled to be on this service and that we should have caught the 18:33 to Bradford Forster Square or the 20:33 to Leeds.
I made my point to the train manager that me and my friend had followed LNER staff advice and boarded the train we were told to get from the member of staff on the platform.
The train manager would not listen to us saying that it would be our word (despite there being two of us who heard the advice to board the 19:33 to Leeds) against the member of platform staff.
I refused to pay for a new ticket because I had two valid tickets for a service that was cancelled and I was told by a member of LNER staff to board this service to Leeds.
This discussion went on for a good ten minutes with the train manager repeating that we should have got the 18:33 LNER train to Bradford or the 20:33 but not the 19:33.
I made the valid point of how could we have caught the 18:33 to Bradford when we didn't arrive at Kings Cross until 19:25 some 50 minutes after that service had departed. So how could we have physically known to board and catch that service at 18:33?
In all my 30 years of travelling on the rail network I have never met such abysmal and discourteous customer service from onboard train staff. I genuinely was made to look like a ticketless criminal despite having a valid ticket for a train service which was cancelled.
In the end, the train manager persuaded me and my friend to accept an unpaid penalty fare and his words “to then try and successfully appeal it with the information I had told him.”
The UPF was for London to Leeds despite our tickets saying London to Bradford, so on arrival into Leeds, we had problems with Northern staff accepting our UPF through to Bradford despite me explaining that our original tickets were London Kings Cross to Bradford Interchange. So we then had an issue with getting from Leeds to Bradford.
I honestly fail to see how I am in the wrong after I followed the advice I was told.
Any advice from you lovely people on here would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Me and my friend were due to catch the 19:48 Grand Central train to Bradford Interchange.
On arrival at London Kings Cross at around 19:25 we noticed it was cancelled.
Because our earlier train in the morning, the 8:23 one from Brighouse was cancelled, we instinctively knew as per that journey down to London, that we would have to get an LNER service to complete our journey.
At King Cross we asked a member of LNER staff who was standing in-between platforms three and four what we should do as we couldn't find any member of Grand Central staff to assist us.
We were advised to by this member of staff to get on the 19:33 Leeds train which was due to depart and sit in coach C which was the unreserved coach for this LNER service and to explain our situation to the train manager when the ticket check took place.
We boarded the train at 19:31 with two minutes to spare and sat down in two unreserved seats.
Whilst on the train, the ticket check took place just after Doncaster and we were told we weren't entitled to be on this service and that we should have caught the 18:33 to Bradford Forster Square or the 20:33 to Leeds.
I made my point to the train manager that me and my friend had followed LNER staff advice and boarded the train we were told to get from the member of staff on the platform.
The train manager would not listen to us saying that it would be our word (despite there being two of us who heard the advice to board the 19:33 to Leeds) against the member of platform staff.
I refused to pay for a new ticket because I had two valid tickets for a service that was cancelled and I was told by a member of LNER staff to board this service to Leeds.
This discussion went on for a good ten minutes with the train manager repeating that we should have got the 18:33 LNER train to Bradford or the 20:33 but not the 19:33.
I made the valid point of how could we have caught the 18:33 to Bradford when we didn't arrive at Kings Cross until 19:25 some 50 minutes after that service had departed. So how could we have physically known to board and catch that service at 18:33?
In all my 30 years of travelling on the rail network I have never met such abysmal and discourteous customer service from onboard train staff. I genuinely was made to look like a ticketless criminal despite having a valid ticket for a train service which was cancelled.
In the end, the train manager persuaded me and my friend to accept an unpaid penalty fare and his words “to then try and successfully appeal it with the information I had told him.”
The UPF was for London to Leeds despite our tickets saying London to Bradford, so on arrival into Leeds, we had problems with Northern staff accepting our UPF through to Bradford despite me explaining that our original tickets were London Kings Cross to Bradford Interchange. So we then had an issue with getting from Leeds to Bradford.
I honestly fail to see how I am in the wrong after I followed the advice I was told.
Any advice from you lovely people on here would be appreciated.
Thank you.