Hi Yorkie.
I have to ask..... how would anyone know?
For the EC Guard I'm just a bloke who bordes as Peterborough going to York?
Just for my own curiosity and titillation sir!
JW
If your train from Norwich is sufficiently late, and you've 'split' at Peterborough, then your Peterborough to York Advance isn't valid on its own as you've missed the train!
But, providing you allowed sufficient interchange, you may hold "two or more tickets for one journey", and by showing all the tickets for your journey, you're valid "on the next available train(s) to complete your journey".
In the incident referred to above,
zzip00 was correctly advised not to worry about the delay by Greater Anglia staff. However an infamous EC Guard decided to ignore the PTUs (Pricing & Ticketing Updates) provided by his Company which clarified that passengers should not be penalised on combinations of tickets. He made some utterly wrong claims, and issued a UFN (unpaid fare notice). RPSS (a spineless debt collection agency) pursued the passengers for payment of the Anytime fare.
zzip00 sought advice on MSE (MoneySavingExpert), where several knowledgeable people said to pay up, but I then met
zzip00 at a local pub and made a few contacts with relevant (and helpful!) people, and the UFN was withdrawn. EC issued a further reminder in a subsequent PTU. However the Guard in question has caused several other forum members a lot of hassle, so EC's disciplinary procedures are clearly woefully inadequate.
Since then, the situation was further clarified for all Train Companies in the 'Advance Fare FAQ' (a copy of which is available in our Fares Guide) which makes it clear combinations are allowed.
Furthermore, several more appalling incidents of passengers charged ludicrous sums resulted in ATOC finally giving into DfT pressure, and anyone who is on the wrong train on the advance and whose train isn't delayed, is only charged the appropriate fare, not the full fare.
Therefore passengers such as
transportphoto can safely split at Peterborough (which generally does save money; thanks to
Romilly for providing some comparisons and confirming this!) without having any worries about the possible actions of EC's most notorious Guards.
Rest assured, he's still out there, looking for people (particularly rail staff, as it happens, and especially if they work for TPE apparently!) to catch out, using his own 'unique' interpretation of the NRCoC and Routeing Guides, but as much as he'd like to, I don't think he'll be charging people in zzip00's situation again.
Ironically, the day after I met
zzip00 and resolved their incorrect charge, you can guess who my guard was on the train to London that morning... it was so,
so, tempting to say something, but of course I didn't.
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Good point. damn.
Now I'm worried as I'm doing SMK to Hartlepool split at PBO & YORK on Saturday coming back sunday.
Oh well. I'll worry about it if it happens.
Thanks.
You don't need to worry.
The 'battle' has already been 'won'!
If you want further re-assurances about "splitting", check out the PDF attachment at the bottom of the
1.1.3 Advance Tickets post in our Fares Guide.
The East Coast PTUs can be found
in this FOI request; without checking and from memory, a reminder was sent in maybe June or July 2011, which was ignored by
zzip00's Guard, and a further reminder was issued in August or September 2011 (clearly in reference to the incident in question).
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Edit: it's been pointed out to me that there
is still a small possibility of a passenger being incorrectly charged when splitting, however I am confident - providing sufficient interchange was allowed - of overturning any such charges, and I am happy to proof read a letter and provide assistance in such an event.
When I said "the battle was won" I don't mean that there is a guarantee of all staff allowing people travel in such an event, but that I would be absolutely confident of recovering an such charges.
