LM rail sale vs LM Sunday disruption

[Carefree]

London Midland is selling tickets at a reduction of 50% on it's LM-only fare, for travel this Sunday on trains it knows it is not running. It says Virgin will accept these tickets instead.

How happy is Virgin that I can right now buy a return from London to Liverpool for £16.50 - a fare from which it takes not a penny; and at the same time avoid its £70 off-peak revenue raising return.

Have I missed something? If I walk on to a Virgin train armed with nothing more than my LM-only ticket and a printout from the LM website saying Virgin is accepting these tickets, will I get where I want to go?

 

[island]

Well, I assume LM has to pay off VWC in order for it to pass its tickets. Exactly how much will be commercially sensitive, but to say VWC's getting nothing at all probable isn't accurate.

 

[London_Midland]

Hello all,

As soon as we knew the position for Sunday, we removed the trains from the database, but a networkwide systems error meant our trains showed for an extra day.

That said, I wouldn't worry too much about VT's position - there's no such thing as a free lunch, as they say.

More importantly, your tickets will be accepted without fuss as has been the case for the last few weeks.

Hope that helps,

David.

 

[WestCoast]

I have no doubt there will be a commercial arrangement.

London Underground used to have a similar arrangement with Heathrow Express when there was some sort of disruption on the Piccadilly Line between Heathrow and Central London. But it ended a few years ago, using a travelcard on HEX was great.

 

[All Line Rover]

This is starting to sound like a very cheap way to visit London on a Sunday!

 

[bnm]

This is starting to sound like a very cheap way to visit London on a Sunday!

For those that have an alternative TOC to fall back on. If I was living in Northampton I wouldn't be so happy to hear that tickets will be accepted by other operators.

 

[All Line Rover]

For those that have an alternative TOC to fall back on. If I was living in Northampton I wouldn't be so happy to hear that tickets will be accepted by other operators.

Personally I'm not too bothered about those who live in Northampton! They can sort out their own affairs!

My local "main" station is Crewe, and £15 return (for an adult!) is fantastic value!

 

[SS4]

I wonder why they aren't stopping at Aston on this week's amended timetable especially since the Villa are at home.

I wonder if virgin are accepting them as "base" tickets for the purposes of weekend upgrades

 

[asb]

I wonder why they aren't stopping at Aston on this week's amended timetable especially since the Villa are at home.

I imagine its precisely because Villa are at home. The one train per hour wouldn't be able to cope with all the football supporters, so to dissuade them its easier (and to be fair, probably safer) to close the station.

 

[RJ]

For those that have an alternative TOC to fall back on. If I was living in Northampton I wouldn't be so happy to hear that tickets will be accepted by other operators.

Trains are running London to Northampton on Sunday. There are buses from Northampton to Rugby, presume those coming from the north to Northampton will be able to use Virgin to either Rugby or Milton Keynes.