Routeing guide / maps as of September 2013

[YorkC]

Does anyone have a copy of the routeing guide maps & yellow pages as of September 2013? A friend travelled from York to Edinburgh at this time using a ticket from Wakefield to Lancaster (any permitted). I've got notes I made at the time that showed that this route was valid using (then-)maps ER+NC via Wakefield -> Doncaster -> York -> Edinburgh -> Carstairs -> Lancaster. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of these maps and the yellow pages to get back to Passenger Focus.

I did warn that there were likely to be problems with this but unfortunately the train manager was very belligerent about this and insisted that the ticket was not valid - I think the passenger got a bit intimidated by this and paid for a new ticket. Passenger Focus's reply about the issue says that the ticket was not valid, citing that the Wakefield->Edinburgh ticket was signifcantly more expensive, and that the route taken would be "unnecessary and unreasonable in terms of routeing". It further says that having checked online journey planners, no routes are produced - obviously this wasn't a stated requirement at the time anyway...

 

[yorkie]

Passenger Focus..

.... appear to be in cahoots with the DfT, from whom they get their funding.

Sadly the funding appears to mostly go on the incompetent Antony Smith's whopping great salary (which was a ludicrous, unjustifiable £122,000 back in 2007 - source), leaving insufficient funding for adequate training and competent staff.

They are supposed to check Routeing Guide changes, and be both aware of them, and fight our case for routeings to be retained, however they are unaware of most changes, make no attempt to keep a track of the changes, and do not even understand the basic concepts of the Routeing Guide. They can't be bothered to read the Routeing Guide properly, nor attempt to understand it, and they certainly aren't interested in reading our Fares Guide, where the Routeing Guide is explained.

An incredibly basic concept in the Routeing Guide is that of Routeing Points, and if both origin & destination are RPs, which is indeed the case, the fares check rule doesn't come into it.

I don't mind if Passenger Focus say that the route was a mistake and they won't object to it's withdrawal, as in this case it clearly was a mistake. But they should admit the truth: it WAS a permitted route at the time and therefore the passenger should NOT have been charged.

Sadly the rail industry doesn't suffer any penalties, prosecutions or admin fees when it refuses to comply with it's own rules. This is in contrast to the situation passengers face.

There is no effective regulator, and no competent ombudsman with any powers whatsoever.

It's not a level playing field.

Passenger Focus are a disgrace.

 

[maniacmartin]

You can find historic copies of the routeing guide at the Routeing Guide History Project. This is an unofficial site and may be missing documents.

ER+NC was removed from the Yellow Pages in the release around 10th Sept 2013.
Maps ER and NC were also greatly modified around 13th Sept 2013 to remove the Scottish parts.

If the ticket was purchased before around 10th Sept, then It would be valid, otherwise it would not.

As for Passenger Focus and the Routeing Guide, they have no idea, yet still love to jump to conclusions. Documents obtained under FoI show that they on at least one occasion ask ATOC if a certain routeing was permitted, and then relayed this information to the passenger, without checking to see if it is incorrect (which it was)

 

[YorkC]

Cheers for the replies. I'll have to check the exact date but it was early September and I'd checked the yellow pages that morning. Isn't it also the case that changes to the NRG don't take immediately but at the time of the next round of fares setting anyway?