Night Riviera

[Sleepy]

When the down sleeper is routed via Honiton eg. Sunday 28th April and loco has to run round at Exeter does the ECS stock run into Paddington wrong way round (sleeping cars London end) to enable it to arrive at Penzance the normal way round ?

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

When the down sleeper is routed via Honiton eg. Sunday 28th April and loco has to run round at Exeter does the ECS stock run into Paddington wrong way round (sleeping cars London end) to enable it to arrive at Penzance the normal way round ?

Correct - it gets turned via a triangular move between Reading/Newbury/Didcot.

 

[co-tr-paul]

Depends how many trips are required for it to operate through the route. S

 

[NER1621]

Night Riviera PNZ-PAD 5/6 May cancelled due to ASLEF overtime ban. Called by GWR about this today. No passenger assistance or travel information, or an offer of a free ticket for an alternative daytime service or help with accommodation (as we were going to be sleeping in the sleeper) offered, just “claim a refund.”

Basically - f*ck off, you’re on your own mate. There’s an overtime ban - I accept that. And as a consequence I’m now not booking any rail travel or associated event tickets more than a fortnight in advance, and if that means advance tickets are too expensive I’ll drive or change my plans. (This booking was for our annual week in Cornwall, booked months ago in order to secure accommodation).

What gets right up my nose is that the railway industry just walks away from its passengers at the first sign of trouble, whilst expecting those same passengers to follow arcane rules and jump through complex hoops to find the right ticket or journey information.

 

[Watershed]

Night Riviera PNZ-PAD 5/6 May cancelled due to ASLEF overtime ban. Called by GWR about this today. No passenger assistance or travel information, or an offer of a free ticket for an alternative daytime service or help with accommodation (as we were going to be sleeping in the sleeper) offered, just “claim a refund.”

Basically - f*ck off, you’re on your own mate. There’s an overtime ban - I accept that. And as a consequence I’m now not booking any rail travel or associated event tickets more than a fortnight in advance, and if that means advance tickets are too expensive I’ll drive or change my plans. (This booking was for our annual week in Cornwall, booked months ago in order to secure accommodation).

What gets right up my nose is that the railway industry just walks away from its passengers at the first sign of trouble, whilst expecting those same passengers to follow arcane rules and jump through complex hoops to find the right ticket or journey information.

It's incredibly frustrating, isn't it. Legally speaking GWR are on the hook for your alternative accommodation costs plus they must accept your ticket free of charge on alternative services.

And even though GWR might facetiously argue "you weren't delayed because the sleeper wasn't part of the timetable" because they cancelled it, thus denying Delay Repay, as a minimum you'd be entitled to price reduction under the Consumer Rights Act given the delay (or much earlier departure) you'll face.

I certainly wouldn't just take it lying down, even if that's (understandably) the easy option.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Night Riviera PNZ-PAD 5/6 May cancelled due to ASLEF overtime ban. Called by GWR about this today. No passenger assistance or travel information, or an offer of a free ticket for an alternative daytime service or help with accommodation (as we were going to be sleeping in the sleeper) offered, just “claim a refund.”

Basically - f*ck off, you’re on your own mate. There’s an overtime ban - I accept that. And as a consequence I’m now not booking any rail travel or associated event tickets more than a fortnight in advance, and if that means advance tickets are too expensive I’ll drive or change my plans. (This booking was for our annual week in Cornwall, booked months ago in order to secure accommodation).

What gets right up my nose is that the railway industry just walks away from its passengers at the first sign of trouble, whilst expecting those same passengers to follow arcane rules and jump through complex hoops to find the right ticket or journey information.

It's what Britain's railways call excellent customer service.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's incredibly frustrating, isn't it. Legally speaking GWR are on the hook for your alternative accommodation costs plus they must accept your ticket free of charge on alternative services.

The way GWR sell the Riviera (or did when I last used it, anyway) is a Super Off Peak Single plus the room upgrade. Thus it already is valid on alternative services, or if you want that on a different day you can refund it and purchase another.

 

[irish_rail]

Trouble is the Riviera is currently too dependent on a dwindling number of Exeter HSS drivers (Plymouth depot only has one out of the 5 total driving turns). If Plymouth where to take over the Up from Penzance to Plymouth / or Exeter, it might take some of the pressure off, however, despite this continuing to be rumoured, it still hasn't happened. Similarly Plymouth used to do the down between Exeter and Plymouth, but that became Exeter work a couple of years back. No real reason why Plymouth couldn't take that back in order to share the load a little better than at present.