More Northern complimentary rail voucher questions

[hh5]

Hi,

I have a few questions about Northern's complimentary rail vouchers, which would be great to get a few opinions on. I know a few have been discussed before, and sorry if a few are pretty obvious, but I thought I would feebly attempt to make a slightly comprehensive FAQ for them here, seeing as Northern's guidance is pretty unclear on it.

1. Are northern-only routes invalid in the ATOC routeing guide valid with one of these vouchers? I know there's been a bit of dispute with this re the NRCoT etc. Something like Halifax-Carlisle-Newcastle.
2. If travelling with the voucher as part of a journey (e.g. Halifax-Chester on the voucher, Chester-Wales on other ToCs advance tickets), if the northern service is delayed and a connection is missed, is it valid to get the next train, like with a normal split-ticket journey?
3. Similar to question 2, and admittedly quite cynical, if there was a Northern delay, would they be obliged to uphold delay repay or send another voucher? Again, pretty cynical, but I would try it if I could if I was connecting onto something like the Conwy valley line where a delay could have a massive knock-on effect.
4. If they've forgotten to tick the Adult/child/family box, and I tick ''family", is it valid to travel with just two adults? The back implies it might be but normal family railcard rules wouldn't allow that.
5. Probably unlikely, but would a journey like this be valid? HFX-NCL on the voucher, but I buy a trans-pennine ticket from York-Darlington, to be used in the middle of the journey where northern doesn't travel, and travel northern for the rest of the route?

Cheers in advance, I've attached a picture of them, with the text on the back for reference.

 

[BlueFox]

If they've forgotten to tick the Adult/child/family box, and I tick ''family", is it valid to travel with just two adults? The back implies it might be but normal family railcard rules wouldn't allow that.

I did that last week. No problems at all.

 

[Starmill]

Are northern-only routes invalid in the ATOC routeing guide valid with one of these vouchers? I know there's been a bit of dispute with this re the NRCoT etc. Something like Halifax-Carlisle-Newcastle.

Has there been a dispute? The vouchers are a special offer. The terms do not state that they are only valid to or from particular stations, so one can only assume that they are valid between any pair of stations by Northern services only. In cases where there are no permitted routes between these stations that Northern trains follow, there is no defined procedure. I would thus imagine that any route is permitted - although it does seem a little odd that no contractual provision has been made for this. Otherwise how would one make a single journey from Hull to Middlesbrough with one of these vouchers?

• If travelling with the voucher as part of a journey (e.g. Halifax-Chester on the voucher, Chester-Wales on other ToCs advance tickets), if the northern service is delayed and a connection is missed, is it valid to get the next train, like with a normal split-ticket journey?

• Similar to question 2, and admittedly quite cynical, if there was a Northern delay, would they be obliged to uphold delay repay or send another voucher? Again, pretty cynical, but I would try it if I could if I was connecting onto something like the Conwy valley line where a delay could have a massive knock-on effect.

I can't see any reason why these tickets would be treated any differently for this purpose.

If they've forgotten to tick the Adult/child/family box, and I tick ''family", is it valid to travel with just two adults? The back implies it might be but normal family railcard rules wouldn't allow that.

The product is not a Family Railcard, so I'm sure that isn't relevant.

 

[Starmill]

Probably unlikely, but would a journey like this be valid? HFX-NCL on the voucher, but I buy a trans-pennine ticket from York-Darlington, to be used in the middle of the journey where northern doesn't travel, and travel northern for the rest of the route?

Again I cannot see why that would not be allowed. You are obeying the restrictions of the ticket by only using it on Northern services. You are also travelling in accordance with permitted routes between Halifax and Newcastle (even though I have discussed above that this may not actually be a requirement, this is a point of unclarity). It doesn't matter that Northern don't run passenger services between York and Darlington for this purpose. It also doesn't matter how you get between them, be it in a car, on a coach or by buying another train ticket.

 

[Kite159]

IIRC this issue has come up in the last few months about the permitted routes, and I it was mentioned that the routing guide can be ignored with these free tickets and as long as you don't double back on yourself the guards don't worry.

For example you could use a ticket to go Scarborough to Darlington via the Cumbrian coast as long as you kept to Northern services

 

[yorkie]

Are northern-only routes invalid in the ATOC routeing guide valid with one of these vouchers? I know there's been a bit of dispute with this re the NRCoT etc. Something like Halifax-Carlisle-Newcastle.

Has there been a dispute?! I got given a map and was told I could travel between any pair of stations. The map clearly shows that to get from Halifax to Newcastle on Northern only, you would have to travel via Carlisle.

There can be no compulsion to use another operator for part of your journey at additional cost.

If travelling with the voucher as part of a journey (e.g. Halifax-Chester on the voucher, Chester-Wales on other ToCs advance tickets), if the northern service is delayed and a connection is missed, is it valid to get the next train, like with a normal split-ticket journey?

You may use a combination of tickets for one journey. I would argue this is a ticket. I therefore cannot see how it could possibly fail to be a ticket for this purpose.

If they've forgotten to tick the Adult/child/family box, and I tick ''family", is it valid to travel with just two adults? The back implies it might be but normal family railcard rules wouldn't allow that.

I am not sure how a Family Railcard comes into it.

Probably unlikely, but would a journey like this be valid? HFX-NCL on the voucher, but I buy a trans-pennine ticket from York-Darlington, to be used in the middle of the journey where northern doesn't travel, and travel northern for the rest of the route?

Providing you do not use the ticket on another TOC, I can't see how it could possibly be claimed to be invalid.

 

[Haywain]

For example you could use a ticket to go Scarborough to Darlington via the Cumbrian coast as long as you kept to Northern services

Are there enough hours in the day to achieve that?

 

[Kite159]

Are there enough hours in the day to achieve that?

Just about (using first Northern train of the day from Scarborough going via the Hope Valley etc gets you into Darlington at 21:44 )

 

[hh5]

Thanks for all your thorough replies! Feel a lot more confident about using these as well now.