Advance ticket validity during strike days

[noblergt]

Before this week's strike days were announced I had purchased an Advance ticket from Polsloe Birdge to Paddington via GWR on Sat June 3rd. When the ASLEF strike was announced for June 3rd, my plan was to take advantage of the easement to allow myself to travel the day before on the Friday. As hotels had become expensive at this point I booked a night's stay in a hotel near West Drayton station. I could get to West Drayton either by changing at Reading or Paddington, and I don't think that the Elizabeth Line will be as affected by the strikes. Then I could continue my journey into central London on Saturday.

Since I booked the hotel there is also now the additional RMT strike on Friday June 2nd. Some trains are planned to run from Exeter to London still on the Friday, but not from Polsloe Bridge.

My questions are:

Can I start my journey short at Exeter St David's with my advance ticket on the Friday?

Can I stop short at Reading to change onto the Elizabeth line? Are there contactless readers in the station or would I have to try to exit the barriers? (Which I assume wouldn't work with the ticket)

Then finally, I did wonder if my original ticket would actually be valid on EL from Reading to West Drayton itself due to all the disruption, but I have assumed this would not be the case.

Thanks!

 

[Kilopylae]

Can I start my journey short at Exeter St David's with my advance ticket on the Friday?

According to the letter of the rules, no.

But I'd be truly amazed if there was a problem with this.

In my experience, the barrier staff at St Davids are very reasonable, and this is a perfectly sensible usage of the ticket, especially as there are no trains from Polsloe at all.

Can I stop short at Reading to change onto the Elizabeth line?

Same situation: according to the letter of the rules, no, but it's not likely to be a problem in practice.

Are there contactless readers in the station or would I have to try to exit the barriers? (Which I assume wouldn't work with the ticket)

I don't think there are contactless readers in the station but you can use an e-ticket from Reading to West Drayton for £14.50 (the contactless price is £7.30). Check with someone more knowledgeable though as I might be mistaken.

 

[Watershed]

Can I start my journey short at Exeter St David's with my advance ticket on the Friday?

In theory strikes don't change the terms of Advance ticket terms and conditions. But in this instance, with there being no trains from Polsloe Bridge due to the strike, I hardly think the gateline staff will quibble about you only performing the part of your journey that is possible to make, given the strike timetable.

Can I stop short at Reading to change onto the Elizabeth line?

Again, in theory no, but in practice I expect discretion would be shown given the circumstances.

Are there contactless readers in the station or would I have to try to exit the barriers? (Which I assume wouldn't work with the ticket)

The only way to pay using contactless is to use the readers installed in the barriers. In theory you could simply reach over the gates and touch in, but this could arouse the suspicion of gateline staff and I would not recommend doing this. It may be better to speak to the ticket office at Exeter, or else the guard on the train up to Paddington and ask them whether they're willing to endorse your ticket for travel to West Drayton.

Then finally, I did wonder if my original ticket would actually be valid on EL from Reading to West Drayton itself due to all the disruption, but I have assumed this would not be the case.

There isn't a TOC restriction per se if it's routed "AP Slough" rather than "GWR only" (the wording on your ticket may be slightly different). But you can't simply choose to unnecessarily change trains on an Advance.

In the circumstances, if neither ticket office staff nor the guard on your train to Paddington are willing to endorse your ticket, I would continue on the train all the way to Paddington and then use Oyster or contactless to return to West Drayton. This is likely to take about the same amount of time as slogging it on the Elizabeth line from Reading, and will cost less as well as being unambiguously valid.

For future reference, the fact that there's a strike on doesn't diminish the train companies' obligation to provide you with alternative transport (or else accommodation) if you stil want to travel on the booked day. Exercising those rights can be difficult, but it might have been easier and less expensive than the alternative arrangements you've ended up making here.

 

[Kilopylae]

For future reference, the fact that there's a strike on doesn't diminish the train companies' obligation to provide you with alternative transport (or else accommodation) if you stil want to travel on the booked day. Exercising those rights can be difficult, but it might have been easier and less expensive than the alternative arrangements you've ended up making here.

I endorse the sentiment, but for 'difficult' read 'almost impossible' if you're talking about getting GWR to provision alternative transport from Exeter to Bristol.

 

[m00036]

The default entitlement is to board a train as close to your originally booked itinerary. In the absence of any service from your planned origin, starting short at Exeter St Davids is entirely legitimate - it's in Article 15 of the Guidance on regulation No 1371/2007 on rail passengers' rights and obligations which is part of UK law.

Regarding the Elizabeth Line, strictly speaking that's not permitted. However, as others above have said, you would expect discretion to be shown in this instance.

Note: The National Rail website update means that I can't find the same page, but one of the T&Cs is that you can't take advantage of a strike day easement if you were informed of strike action prior to travel (such as by booking a ticket on the Saturday having heard about the Saturday strike and then using it to travel on the Friday). Obviously it's not enforceable but probably best not to push your luck too many times over, even though I appreciate you've been heavily disrupted.

 

[noblergt]

Thanks everyone. I'll ask a guard on the train if it can be endorse my ticket to go straight to West Drayton, but otherwise I think I'll just complete the journey going via Paddington as it doesn't take much longer as Watershed mentioned.