Obligations of the Railway to Walk Up Customers

[Miken]

Hello, I have today been 'dismissed' in no uncertain terms by the Customer Relations Dept at Northern. Complaining about a 3-hour gap in service last Monday between Wigan Wallgate and Parbold late evening I've been told that Northern holds no responsibility at all because I didn't have a ticket. I discovered the cancellations on my Euston to Wigan Northern Western leg of the journey home so didn't buy a ticket on arrival at Wigan as there was no train due until 23.21 and I arrived at 21.35 into North Western. Does this mean that any walk up passenger has absolutely no redress when the railway lets customers down so badly? I realise I may have learned a hard lesson but it only goes to reinforce my perception that as passengers we really are at the bottom of the heap... If Northern are right then I'll take the medicine but I guess I'm just getting pushed more and more away from the railway in spite of a need to travel about 30,000 miles pa on business.

 

[ModernRailways]

Technically they are correct, and generally in the first instance this will be the response, they can’t really provide compensation when no ticket was actually held, nor purchased.

That isn’t to say if you do give them some pushback on it that they won’t give a better response. Advise them what you have here and request some kind of redress for the situation along with why it occurred and what they’re going to do to prevent it again as you had to change travel plans and they may be more forthcoming.

As silly as it is, no contract has been formed, if you bought a ticket and then there were no trains due to cancellations then you would be entitled to comp

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You make an interesting discussion point, but what contractual obligations do you think that Northern actually had to you, if you didn't have any ticket for the Wigan Wallgate -> Parbold leg of your intended journey already?

Presumably you just had an advance ticket between London Euston and Wigan NW, so, as far as "the railway" is concerned, you've effectively completed your journey when they've got you to Wigan North Western.

If you've travelled from London Terminals to Wigan NW/Wallgate on an Off Peak or Anytime ticket, fairly sure that the price from London to Parbold would have been exactly the same, so why not book through to Parbold?

 

[Miken]

You make an interesting discussion point, but what contractual obligations do you think that Northern actually had to you, if you didn't have any ticket for the Wigan Wallgate -> Parbold leg of your intended journey already?

Presumably you just had an advance ticket between London Euston and Wigan NW, so, as far as "the railway" is concerned, you've effectively completed your journey when they've got you to Wigan North Western.

If you've travelled from London Terminals to Wigan NW/Wallgate on an Off Peak or Anytime ticket, fairly sure that the price from London to Parbold would have been exactly the same, so why not book through to Parbold?

This is a good challenge, in the past I used to find that Advance tickets were not available when searching for journeys that covered more than one TOC. Perhaps this is an out-of-date perception on my part so I'll certainly look at booking through tickets from now on...

 

[Bletchleyite]

This is a good challenge, in the past I used to find that Advance tickets were not available when searching for journeys that covered more than one TOC. Perhaps this is an out-of-date perception on my part so I'll certainly look at booking through tickets from now on...

If not, make sure you buy the last bit in advance as well, ideally via a splitting site or at least in the same transaction on your chosen site.

 

[Miken]

Technically they are correct, and generally in the first instance this will be the response, they can’t really provide compensation when no ticket was actually held, nor purchased.

That isn’t to say if you do give them some pushback on it that they won’t give a better response. Advise them what you have here and request some kind of redress for the situation along with why it occurred and what they’re going to do to prevent it again as you had to change travel plans and they may be more forthcoming.

As silly as it is, no contract has been formed, if you bought a ticket and then there were no trains due to cancellations then you would be entitled to comp

Thank you and I think this is the lesson learned here... It does make me think that walk up fares are pretty insecure so to be avoided at all costs... much appreciated, thank you.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

This is a good challenge, in the past I used to find that Advance tickets were not available when searching for journeys that covered more than one TOC. Perhaps this is an out-of-date perception on my part so I'll certainly look at booking through tickets from now on...

There should be advance tickets available from London Euston to Parbold, route "AWC&Connections", the cheapest being £29.90 and £31.60. Whether there are ever all that many available at these price points, is another matter! Cheapest I've found are priced at £32.70.

 

[JonathanH]

There should be advance tickets available from London Euston to Parbold, route "AWC&Connections", the cheapest being £29.90 and £31.60. Whether there are ever all that many available at these price points, is another matter! Cheapest I've found are priced at £32.70.

The trains on the Southport line have counted place reservations. It certainly isn't unknown for such services not to have quotas for through journeys off the 'intercity' operators.

Indeed, controlling revenue can be one of the reasons why counted place reservations are applied on connecting operators.