Purchasing Chiltern Tickets

[bb21]

Any Railcard? What's your destination?

 

[Essexman]

Any Railcard? What's your destination?

No railcard.
Birmingham.

 

[bb21]

Assuming that you held the Via High Wycombe Super Off-Peak Return (£29 adult), the excess would be to the Any Permitted Off-Peak Return (£51.70 adult), so £22.70 each.

 

[Essexman]

Assuming that you held the Via High Wycombe Super Off-Peak Return (£29 adult), the excess would be to the Any Permitted Off-Peak Return (£51.70 adult), so £22.70 each.

Thanks
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
There are still a lot of West Ham fans (travelling to West Brom) unsure as to whether they can use the £29 super off peak tickets bought in advance of the landslip on Virgin (without paying extra) or only if they are Advance tickets. ie unclear whether the capital letter in Advance means only tickets for a set date & train or if it is any ticket bought in advance of the landslip.

Another alternative seems to be £29 on London Midland if they are accepted (or to refund Chiltern tickets & buy new ones for London Midland).

 

[CyrusWuff]

There are still a lot of West Ham fans (travelling to West Brom) unsure as to whether they can use the £29 super off peak tickets bought in advance of the landslip on Virgin (without paying extra) or only if they are Advance tickets. ie unclear whether the capital letter in Advance means only tickets for a set date & train or if it is any ticket bought in advance of the landslip.

Another alternative seems to be £29 on London Midland if they are accepted (or to refund Chiltern tickets & buy new ones for London Midland).

The only Chiltern tickets that Virgin are accepting as of today are Advance tickets booked prior to the landslip, in which case you should travel as close to the booked time as possible, and season tickets purchased at the full price (if renewing, you need to keep the old season to prove you had one before the landslip).

For walk-up tickets, you would need to purchase an Excess (or get a refund and buy new tickets) to travel with Virgin or London Midland.

 

[Essexman]

Chiltern have now changed the FAQ on their website to clarify, saying that Off Peak & Super Off Peak are not accepted on Virgin.
We have decided to use London Midland which is also £29.

 

[pne]

Anyone done train - bus - train yet and care to share their experiences?

I did that last year on my way to Cornwall after the seawall in Dawlish got damaged.

Busses were waiting in Tiverton Parkway; getting on went fairly quickly, then the bus was off down the motorway and reached Plymouth at about the time the train would have.

There was staff there for guidance, answers, and/or a cup of tea.

The main problem was stuffing an HST worth of passengers into a much shorter train for the route from Plymouth into Cornwall!

Otherwise, things worked out fairly well. I think the timing with the bus was even similar to the train timetable (i.e. I think I arrived at Par to change for Newquay in time for the connecting train that I would have caught had the HST been able to continue straight through from Paddington to Penzance). Mind, this was an express bus from Tiverton Parkway to Plymouth with no stops anywhere in between.

 

[dvboy]

Just been clarifying over twitter with Chiltern and Virgin the validity of advances purchased before 4 Feb - I was told they need to be used on the closest train possible to the original booking.

There isn't such advice on the Chiltern website, I have been told this will be fed back to be added.

I have an advance for the 0715 from Marylebone on Thursday and asked if I could use it on the 0803 from Euston - apparently this would be too late (there are departures from Euston at 0723 and 0743).

The official "minimum connection time" from Marylebone to Euston is 51 minutes however, so make of that what you will.

 

[67018]

Just been clarifying over twitter with Chiltern and Virgin the validity of advances purchased before 4 Feb - I was told they need to be used on the closest train possible to the original booking.

There isn't such advice on the Chiltern website, I have been told this will be fed back to be added.

I have an advance for the 0715 from Marylebone on Thursday and asked if I could use it on the 0803 from Euston - apparently this would be too late (there are departures from Euston at 0723 and 0743).

The official "minimum connection time" from Marylebone to Euston is 51 minutes however, so make of that what you will.

They wouldn't, I guess, expect you to go to Marylebone for your timed train then travel from there to Euston.

Connection times between many London terminals are a joke anyway. Google suggests 33 minutes to *walk* between Marylebone and Euston.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I have an advance for the 0715 from Marylebone on Thursday and asked if I could use it on the 0803 from Euston - apparently this would be too late (there are departures from Euston at 0723 and 0743).

I believe that Virgin are settling for "within 30 minutes" of the booked time, to allow for the fact that Chiltern normally have two trains per hour to Virgin's three.

There has to be a cut off, otherwise you could potentially have the situation of someone who'd booked a £6 ticket for the 12:15 from Marylebone turning up at the height of the evening peak from Euston and expecting to travel without paying extra, for example.

 

[dvboy]

I believe that Virgin are settling for "within 30 minutes" of the booked time, to allow for the fact that Chiltern normally have two trains per hour to Virgin's three.

There has to be a cut off, otherwise you could potentially have the situation of someone who'd booked a £6 ticket for the 12:15 from Marylebone turning up at the height of the evening peak from Euston and expecting to travel without paying extra, for example.

I agree, however nowhere is this specified, which was why I asked.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

They wouldn't, I guess, expect you to go to Marylebone for your timed train then travel from there to Euston.

No, but had I not known about the landslip, I might've.

 

[sduob]

On the 3rd February I booked 12 tickets for my university society on Chiltern's 8:55 Birmingham Moor Street to Marylebone on the 9th March. Mainly because this is a silver set and I've known it to be loco hauled (this is what happens when an enthusiast is in charge of groups... anyway...) and reasonably fast, since we needed to be in London for 11. My question is, does the landslip and ticketing allowances mean I can take my party on the (presumably) 8:50 Virgin service from New Street to Euston instead, unless of course the line is re-opened? Should I run it by the TOCs on Twitter/via email beforehand?

 

[bb21]

The 0850 should be fine.

With 12 people, you may want to ask if Virgin would kindly make some reservations for you. They might refuse but it is worth a try.

 

[infobleep]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-31504690

Interesting to note that according to the BBC, Network Rail say Chiltern passengers with existing tickets may use Virgin trains. Perhaps they should have added to the report terms and conditions apply.

 

[Wolfie]

On my way from Birmingham to London using Chiltern and very unimpressed verging on peed off! Caught 1555 from Moor St scheduled to arrive Leamington Spa at 1629 for coach connection to Banbury for 1710 train scheduled to arrive Marylebone at 1817 (although announced as arriving 1810 on the 1555)...

Got to Leamington on time but no coaches... after 5mins one appeared which I got onto but many others didn't... due to traffic on the motorway it arrived at Banbury at 1705.. by the time people had got off, got bags and found that the 1710 was going off platform 4 (the furthest from the entrance) a grand total of approx 0 people made that connection because of course Chiltern and Network Rail ran the damn train, presumably virtually empty (unless of course the same thing with the coached has been happening all day), on time! Thanks for absolutely nothing guys! Particularly galling as I was on the bottom step to platform 4 as it departed...
all

Now sat on the 1743, which of course is running off platform 1 the nearest to the station entrance, which is already heaving 10 mins before its scheduled departure and is scheduled to stop at Bicester North...

I have every intention of claiming delay repay and if Chiltern, as is my past experience with their customer service, either don't reply at all (message sent in Dec, reminder in Jan, response to date zilch - pathetic customer service!) or attempt refusal then I will take it further....

They are making bold claims about their emergency service - time for them to live up to those claims!

 

[bb21]

If this were advertised as an official connection then you have every right to be claiming for Delay Repay.

 

[Wolfie]

If this were advertised as an official connection then you have every right to be claiming for Delay Repay.

NRE, the fount of all known wisdom, showed it as such and the guard on the 1555 announced it as such...

 

[bb21]

NRE, the fount of all known wisdom, showed it as such and the guard on the 1555 announced it as such...

Ah, I thought the 1810 mentioned in your earlier post meant "instead of 1710".

 

[Wolfie]

Ah, I thought the 1810 mentioned in your earlier post meant "instead of 1710".

No worries.. my own lack of clarity - 1810 was the time given for arrival into Marylebone...

 

[CyrusWuff]

If this were advertised as an official connection then you have every right to be claiming for Delay Repay.

Except Chiltern don't operate Delay Repay...And if the 1743 runs to time, the delay is 27 minutes according to the published timetable, so no compensation would be due under their Passenger's Charter as that has a 30 minute threshold (as opposed to the one hour trigger on Great Western and South West Trains).

Having said that, in the event of late running, I'm fairly sure bus co-ordinators (not just for Chiltern) are supposed to contact the relevant TOC Control to let them know, so they can make arrangements to hold the train if possible.

 

[Wolfie]

Except Chiltern don't operate Delay Repay...And if the 1743 runs to time, the delay is 27 minutes according to the published timetable, so no compensation would be due under their Passenger's Charter as that has a 30 minute threshold (as opposed to the one hour trigger on Great Western and South West Trains).

Having said that, in the event of late running, I'm fairly sure bus co-ordinators (not just for Chiltern) are supposed to contact the relevant TOC Control to let them know, so they can make arrangements to hold the train if possible.

Well firstly, when I purchased my ticket NRE was still showing a normal timetable for my return date. As such I've already suffered approx 30mins delay as a result of Chiltern's revised timetable. In any event, should Chiltern take that stance, I will involve my MP...

I have to say though that Adrian Shooter's comments in Rail about the steps Chiltern will take to avoid loss of market share, and the impressive contingency plan, ring hollow to me at the moment. If many people have similar experiences to me Chiltern will have serious problems on the Birmingham to London route with permanent market share loss. LM are already actively marketing their direct (ie no coach) service.. I had emails last week..

I'm particularly peed off as I spent a big chunk of last night giving a statement to BTP over an incident on an ATW service yesterday... if the rail industry doesn't want to play fair I'll see nothing next time I'm afraid...

 

[bb21]

Except Chiltern don't operate Delay Repay...And if the 1743 runs to time, the delay is 27 minutes according to the published timetable, so no compensation would be due under their Passenger's Charter as that has a 30 minute threshold (as opposed to the one hour trigger on Great Western and South West Trains).

Having said that, in the event of late running, I'm fairly sure bus co-ordinators (not just for Chiltern) are supposed to contact the relevant TOC Control to let them know, so they can make arrangements to hold the train if possible.

Do they not? My bad.

I do remember the threshold being 30 minutes so I must have got confused, especially since for all intents and purposes between 30 minutes and 2 hours, the compensation should be the same.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Do they not? My bad.

I do remember the threshold being 30 minutes so I must have got confused, especially since for all intents and purposes between 30 minutes and 2 hours, the compensation should be the same.

Chiltern's is stepped, and a bit of a hybrid of the two systems: For a delay of 30 to 59 minutes it's 50% of the affected leg, with a full refund (of the affected leg) for a delay of an hour or more.

Unlike other TOCs still using the Charter scheme, however, they will also pay compensation to season ticket holders on the same basis (using the Anytime Single for the flow as the basis for the calculation) in addition to Void Day refunds (if declared) and Charter Discounts at renewal.

Chiltern's Passenger's Charter is linked from this page, and the Complaints Handling Procedure can be found here.