John Palmer
Member
- Joined
- 23 Oct 2015
- Messages
- 399
On 21st November 2015 I made a return journey from Highbridge to Hilsea, splitting my ticket at Romsey to achieve a saving of about £3.00.
The return journey involved changes at Westbury and Taunton. The Westbury-Taunton leg was via the 1700 London-Penzance (GWR train), booked to arrive at Taunton at 1902. The connection from Taunton-Highbridge departed at 1907. Obviously I was aware that this was a tight margin, but I believe formed a valid itinerary, given the 5 minute difference.
On arrival at Westbury I discovered that the 1700 was running late, so immediately realised it was likely I would need to catch a later connection from Taunton.
In the event, my Highbridge connection departed Taunton 2 minutes late at 1909, but the 1700 on which I was travelling managed to recover only 2 minutes between Westbury and Taunton, arriving 16 minutes late at 1917. Realtime Trains shows the 1700 departing Reading 1 minute late and reaching Pewsey (the next timing point) 18 minutes late so the delay was sustained between these two timing points
The next available connection to Highbridge was the 2017 to Bristol Parkway. This departed on time and deposited me at Highbridge at 2036. Had I made my connection into the 1907 at Taunton, I should have arrived at 1926. Thus the delay suffered was 70 minutes.
Killing time at Taunton, I enquired as to the reason for the delay and obtained a Network Rail incident print-out. This refers to a report from the Kintbury Crossing keeper that the level crossing barrier at Hungerford had failed in the lowered position with no barrier down detection. The keepers report is timed at 1130. The print-out (time stamped 19:29) also contains the following:
11:40 Didcot S&T ETA 12:30. MOM ETA 12:10. 11:55 Thames Valley Police ref 589.
The print-out gives the incident reference as 829187.
The member of staff at Taunton who provided the print-out took the view that this was a clear case in which I was entitled to compensation for delay and provided me with the appropriate claim form which I duly submitted to GWR, claiming for the Romsey-Highbridge ticket only.
Today I have received from GWR a letter rejecting my compensation claim, for the following reason:
Regrettably we are unable to give any compensation when the train is delayed due to animals on line.
My first thought was that GWR had made a mistake about the cause of the delay to the 1700, in view of the print-outs reference to the failure of the Hungerford barrier. However, the timings referred to in the print-out indicate that S&T technicians were expected on-site to deal with the problem at 1230, and this leads me to wonder whether there was a separate, later incident involving livestock that may have been the true reason for my trains delay.
On the other hand, of course, the Hungerford barrier problem may have proved so intractable that it was, in fact, the reason for my trains delay.
I would be interested to discover any means of accessing data that would establish the true reason for the delay.
The return journey involved changes at Westbury and Taunton. The Westbury-Taunton leg was via the 1700 London-Penzance (GWR train), booked to arrive at Taunton at 1902. The connection from Taunton-Highbridge departed at 1907. Obviously I was aware that this was a tight margin, but I believe formed a valid itinerary, given the 5 minute difference.
On arrival at Westbury I discovered that the 1700 was running late, so immediately realised it was likely I would need to catch a later connection from Taunton.
In the event, my Highbridge connection departed Taunton 2 minutes late at 1909, but the 1700 on which I was travelling managed to recover only 2 minutes between Westbury and Taunton, arriving 16 minutes late at 1917. Realtime Trains shows the 1700 departing Reading 1 minute late and reaching Pewsey (the next timing point) 18 minutes late so the delay was sustained between these two timing points
The next available connection to Highbridge was the 2017 to Bristol Parkway. This departed on time and deposited me at Highbridge at 2036. Had I made my connection into the 1907 at Taunton, I should have arrived at 1926. Thus the delay suffered was 70 minutes.
Killing time at Taunton, I enquired as to the reason for the delay and obtained a Network Rail incident print-out. This refers to a report from the Kintbury Crossing keeper that the level crossing barrier at Hungerford had failed in the lowered position with no barrier down detection. The keepers report is timed at 1130. The print-out (time stamped 19:29) also contains the following:
11:40 Didcot S&T ETA 12:30. MOM ETA 12:10. 11:55 Thames Valley Police ref 589.
The print-out gives the incident reference as 829187.
The member of staff at Taunton who provided the print-out took the view that this was a clear case in which I was entitled to compensation for delay and provided me with the appropriate claim form which I duly submitted to GWR, claiming for the Romsey-Highbridge ticket only.
Today I have received from GWR a letter rejecting my compensation claim, for the following reason:
Regrettably we are unable to give any compensation when the train is delayed due to animals on line.
My first thought was that GWR had made a mistake about the cause of the delay to the 1700, in view of the print-outs reference to the failure of the Hungerford barrier. However, the timings referred to in the print-out indicate that S&T technicians were expected on-site to deal with the problem at 1230, and this leads me to wonder whether there was a separate, later incident involving livestock that may have been the true reason for my trains delay.
On the other hand, of course, the Hungerford barrier problem may have proved so intractable that it was, in fact, the reason for my trains delay.
I would be interested to discover any means of accessing data that would establish the true reason for the delay.
