Scenario - what's the official answer

[traction22]

Hello.

I thought I'd post here as I asked two company staff (one in a complaint about another issue, and one on the phone and I didn't get a satisfactory answer).

Situation.
Recently I had a 5am flight from Manchester Airport. I planned it perfectly. aiming to catch the last train from Sheffield to Manchester, and then swapping to a train to the airport.

All is well but on the evening until I got paniccy and checked the train times for the 1000th time. The last train had been cancelled. I had not yet bought a ticket as I'd planned to purchase it at the station, or on the trainline app on the way to the station.

This put me in true panic. I rang the Northern helpline, and she was less than useless. I explained the situation and she gave me one answer, I emphasised another point and I got another. She even asked if I could get to the station about 30 minutes before the train was due to leave (I'm still unclear why). I still don't know if a coach or taxi's were provided.

Anyway, imagine I went to the station and bought a ticket from a machine 20 minutes before the due departure. What were my options? Would they have to provide a taxi if a coach wasn't available? Could they say the train is cancelled and prevent me from purchasing a ticket?

In the end, I decided just to go on the earlier train, but this meant another hour in the airport which I didn't want.




- Side note
The online trackers (trainline.com) aren't very good with exceptions. Go Via Leeds came up with no tickets. I selected from Barnsley rather than from Sheffield and still didn't find anything. Yesterday, I was travelling on a Northern ticket and selected to use Northern and an hour of the journey it suggested as to use Avanti. (this was another planner).

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you don't have a ticket you have no contract and thus no rights. Thus if it is critical it makes sense to buy in advance.

 

[Watershed]

Hello.

I thought I'd post here as I asked two company staff (one in a complaint about another issue, and one on the phone and I didn't get a satisfactory answer).

Situation.
Recently I had a 5am flight from Manchester Airport. I planned it perfectly. aiming to catch the last train from Sheffield to Manchester, and then swapping to a train to the airport.

All is well but on the evening until I got paniccy and checked the train times for the 1000th time. The last train had been cancelled. I had not yet bought a ticket as I'd planned to purchase it at the station, or on the trainline app on the way to the station.

This put me in true panic. I rang the Northern helpline, and she was less than useless. I explained the situation and she gave me one answer, I emphasised another point and I got another. She even asked if I could get to the station about 30 minutes before the train was due to leave (I'm still unclear why). I still don't know if a coach or taxi's were provided.

Anyway, imagine I went to the station and bought a ticket from a machine 20 minutes before the due departure. What were my options? Would they have to provide a taxi if a coach wasn't available? Could they say the train is cancelled and prevent me from purchasing a ticket?

In the end, I decided just to go on the earlier train, but this meant another hour in the airport which I didn't want.




- Side note
The online trackers (trainline.com) aren't very good with exceptions. Go Via Leeds came up with no tickets. I selected from Barnsley rather than from Sheffield and still didn't find anything. Yesterday, I was travelling on a Northern ticket and selected to use Northern and an hour of the journey it suggested as to use Avanti. (this was another planner).

You are only entitled to alternative transport/delay compensation etc. if there is disruption which you were not made aware of at the time of buying your ticket. It's possible you would nevertheless be given these rights if they didn't check to see exactly when you bought your ticket, but equally there is every chance they would tell you you're on your own.

Next time I'd strongly advise buying your ticket ahead of time so that you have protection in the event of any disruption.

As for why routes via Leeds aren't shown, that's because the only permitted route from Sheffield to Manchester Airport is via the Hope Valley (unless you use a direct train which takes another route, e.g. the overnight TPE service via Huddersfield). You would need to buy a combination of tickets to travel by any other route; sites like Trainline won't normally be able to cater to non-permitted routes by splitting.

TrainSplit is much better in this regard, as it will automatically suggest non-permitted routes with an appropriate combination of tickets.

If you already hold a ticket and the last train is cancelled, but there are alternative itineraries available travelling via a non-permitted route, you should ask the TOC responsible to re-route you this way (e.g. endorse your ticket). Alternatively they may simply organise a taxi to your destination.