Recent content by hawk1911

The letter does go on to say that if I have any problems "the Rail Ombudsman should be able to help", but I do agree that there may be a bit of 'trial by ordeal' in that the letter may have to be forwarded a few/many times before the message gets through. I'd like to think that this will also be...

Well it's taken a while, but I finally have an answer. My MP took up the issue with the Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, and today I received a response from the Minister of State for Rail, Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill that was sent back to my MP. The key paragraphs state:

Blackpool South every time, the staff are much better there ;).

I am not a lawyer either, but I am looking at collecting as much information/evidence as possible at the moment. In addition to my complaints with the rail companies, I am pursuing this through my MP, as the responsibility for this change seems to sit with the Department for Transport. Ideally...

Another 'useful' response to my complaint, this time from Southeastern who state: "We don’t believe, based on the circumstances you’ve described, that the upcoming changes to the National Rail Conditions of Travel in respect of refunds will affect your travelling with us or your ability to...

Chiltern Railways have, this morning, been the first company to formally respond to me and they have stated that "The change however is a national change that has been instructed by the Department for Transport."

Well National Rail replied quickly and, not surprisingly, they've stated they only provide information and that I need to individually contact the rail companies I use, so that's what I've done. The email has now been sent to 20+ rail companies (all of whom have acknowledged receipt), so I'll...

That's a good question. The changes have been published on the National Rail website, so that's where I have chosen to go down the rabbit hole. You are right that it may be tricky to pin the ownership of this decision, hence why I am also pursuing this through my MP / the relevant Minister.

I have now submitted a formal complaint to National Rail on the basis that the forthcoming changes to refunds discriminate against disabled people, by putting them at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled, and are, therefore, in breach of the Equalities Act...

OK, I am interested in views on my particular circumstances. I have a health condition (that is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act) that means I don't know if I'll be fit enough to travel until the day of travel itself. On the Saturday just gone I had to abandon my travel plans, for...

I'm on board 1U43, the 17:19 from Milton Keynes Central to Crewe. It was turned round at Milton Keynes, due to disruption near Euston. It has also been diverted via Northampton. Even so, I was very surprised when, without any on board announcement, it left Milton Keynes Central 22 minutes...

I thought I'd provide an update on this post (see below), on another thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/leeds-disruption-again-saturday-09-august.290635/#post-7429121 This relates to the disruption between Manchester Victoria and Bradford Interchange on Saturday 16 August 2025. So, I...

I have had the same issue as above. I regularly travel between Stafford and Bradford (for the football) and I usually split my tickets at Stockport and Rochdale. Two issues with the site: 1) It doesn't offer Stockport & Rochdale as a split (which may be down to 2 below); and 2) I get the same...

To be fair to the staff, at Rochdale, they were being very apologetic. They kept saying they were being told nothing (about alernative travelling options) and were not being allowed to arrange any transport themselves. They seemed to have no more access to which services were operating than me...

That's what we were being told at 09:30 and there were plenty of people at Rochdale station in the same situation as me (there's also X/Twitter posts to that effect as well). It all added up to a complete communication / customer care failure.