Advance ticket - booked on a service that's no longer running

[Silver Cobra]

Hi everyone.

I'm in a little bit of a quandry right now. Back on the 17th March I purchased through VTEC's website an advance ticket from Arlesey to Blackpool North routed via Leeds for the 8th June, departing Arlesey at 0658, with changes at Peterborough and Leeds, and arriving into Blackpool North at 1215. This particular route uses the 1005 Northern service from Leeds to Blackpool North (a York-Blackpool North service). However, after carrying out a few ticket searches for my parents for the same journey earlier today, I've spotted that this particular service is no longer running on the 8th June. So I now have a counted-place reservation on a service that no longer exists.

What would be the best course of action to take at this point? I'm considering visiting the VTEC ticket office in Stevenage tomorrow with my ticket and confirmation e-mail to see if they can provide any assistance. However I'm guessing that where I bought this online, they'll tell me I have to contact the VTEC web team about this.

Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks!

 

[yorkie]

What would be the best course of action to take at this point?

I have no idea which of these options is the "best" but you should be able to do any of the following:

• obtain a full refund;
• travel earlier if it is important for you to arrive on time (and claim delay compensation if appropriate);
• travel later if you cannot depart any earlier

If you clarify the original itinerary in tabular format and clarify what your requirements are, we may be in a position to advise.

 

[Silver Cobra]

The specific itinerary for my journey is as follows:

0658 Arlesey - Peterborough 0739 (Great Northern)
0752 Peterborough - Leeds 0917 (Virgin Trains East Coast)
1005 Leeds - Blackpool North 1215 (Northern)

I have reservations for the VTEC and Northern legs of the journey.

Ideally, I want to still go forward with the journey as I've booked two nights' accomodation in Blackpool which unfortunately is non-refundable. As for travelling earlier/later, NRE gives routings via Manchester Piccadilly with TransPennine Express and Northern, with departures from Leeds at 0953 and 1036. These would work fine with me, but as the TPE services in these itineraries are reservable services, I don't think my ticket would be valid on these. Otherwise, I would have to wait in Leeds until the 1205 departure to Blackpool North, which is a bit of an excessive wait, but if needs must I would do it.

 

[philthetube]

Start on time and claim the free trip.

 

[Silver Cobra]

I think I didn't explain properly, my apologies. It's the Leeds to Blackpool North leg of the journey which is no longer possible. The 1005 departure from Leeds to Blackpool North is no longer running on 8th June (I think it stops as of the May timetable change). After the 0805 departure there are no other departures until 1205, which can be seen here on Real Time Trains. So I can still get to Leeds no problem with my current itinerary. Once I'm at Leeds I face a potential 3 hour wait for the next service to Blackpool North, but this is also a reservable service so as such my ticket is technically not valid on this either.

 

[yorkie]

I think I didn't explain properly, my apologies. It's the Leeds to Blackpool North leg of the journey which is no longer possible. The 1005 departure from Leeds to Blackpool North is no longer running on 8th June (I think it stops as of the May timetable change). After the 0805 departure there are no other departures until 1205, which can be seen here on Real Time Trains. So I can still get to Leeds no problem with my current itinerary. Once I'm at Leeds I face a potential 3 hour wait for the next service to Blackpool North, but this is also a reservable service so as such my ticket is technically not valid on this either.

Your ticket is still valid to Blackpool North!

You will be entitled to take the first available connecting service(s).

There is almost no prospect of anyone claiming your ticket is only valid on a train that has been cancelled and is therefore invalidated.

I find it difficult to believe Northern have such a huge gap in what is normally an hourly timetable (do you have a source for their withdrawal? it would be newsworthy if so!) but if they do, then the appropriate connecting services will be trains via Manchester Piccadilly, on TPE.

 

[philthetube]

Reservations are not a problem, if your train doesn't run get your ticket endorsed at Leeds and all good, there is an hourly Leeds Preston service.

 

[roversfan2001]

Reservations are not a problem, if your train doesn't run get your ticket endorsed at Leeds and all good, there is an hourly Leeds Preston service.

The problem is that there is a 4 hour gap in that Leeds-Preston (and onto Blackpool North) service.

Sent from my HTC Desire 530 using Tapatalk

 

[Silver Cobra]

Your ticket is still valid to Blackpool North!

You will be entitled to take the first available connecting service(s).

There is almost no prospect of anyone claiming your ticket is only valid on a train that has been cancelled and is therefore invalidated.

I find it difficult to believe Northern have such a huge gap in what is normally an hourly timetable (do you have a source for their withdrawal? it would be newsworthy if so!) but if they do, then the appropriate connecting services will be trains via Manchester Piccadilly, on TPE.

I see. So based on what you're saying, as long as I get my ticket endorsed at Leeds, I can use any appropriate service/services to get to Blackpool North.

As for the gap in the services, I don't have any news sources on it unfortunately. But looking through RTT and NRE on any random weekday dates from May 22nd onwards (RTT for May 22nd), there is a 4 hour gap in the services from 0805 until 1205. I checked Northern's website for their new timetable for this route, but it won't download, coming up with a 'Server not found' error.

Reservations are not a problem, if your train doesn't run get your ticket endorsed at Leeds and all good, there is an hourly Leeds Preston service.

The only issue is the Leeds-Preston service is in fact the same service that runs to Blackpool North, so as such this service isn't available until the 1205 departure.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I am utterly baffled as to why a 4hr gap exists in the Leeds to Preston/Nlackpools after May, its rather worrying.

 

[Whistler40145]

It does seem to be quite bizarre, if it had been in the Winter timetable changes I would have understood, it's not as if there's any engineering work taking place to my knowledge between Leeds and Preston and Preston to Blackpool North.

 

[greatkingrat]

The PDF timetables on the Northern site show the 1005 Leeds - Blackpool North running as normal in the May timetable, so I suspect it is an error with the timetable upload that will be corrected nearer the time.

 

[yorkie]

I see. So based on what you're saying, as long as I get my ticket endorsed at Leeds, I can use any appropriate service/services to get to Blackpool North.

Your ticket is valid on appropriate connecting services. If the 1005 isn't running (it probably will be) your ticket is valid without any requirement to get the ticket 'endorsed'. If a TPE Guard had any doubt that you were on an appropriate connecting service, they could inspect your itinerary and would be fine with it. I doubt they'd bat an eyelid.

As for the gap in the services, I don't have any news sources on it unfortunately. But looking through RTT and NRE on any random weekday dates from May 22nd onwards (RTT for May 22nd), there is a 4 hour gap in the services from 0805 until 1205. I checked Northern's website for their new timetable for this route, but it won't download, coming up with a 'Server not found' error.

I am confident an hourly service will be booked to operate, and in the unlikely event the 1005 is cancelled I am sure you won't have any problems getting to Blackpool.

 

[Silver Cobra]

The PDF timetables on the Northern site show the 1005 Leeds - Blackpool North running as normal in the May timetable, so I suspect it is an error with the timetable upload that will be corrected nearer the time.

Now I have been able to download the PDF timetable from their website (using a different internet connection), I can confirm this. The 1005 is definitely listed in the May-December timetable.

Thanks for all your input and advice everyone My journey should hopefully go ahead without any problems, but in the rare likelihood that the service is cancelled, I now know exactly where I stand on how to proceed.

 

[Segedunum]

Indeed, RTT has the only weekday services from York to Blackpool as being at 0620, 0719, 1427 and 1718, with a 1918 to Preston.

I suspect this is an error as others have mentioned above considering that a full service is down to operate on weekends.

 

[bb21]

Someone probably cocked it up at train planning (NR or TOC).

Either that or schedules haven't been loaded in correctly.

The train should appear on the day. I cannot see an intentional 4-hour gap without any warning.

You may want to contact Northern so that it can be rectified asap.