Alternative Route OK? Gatwick to North Camp (area)

[MrToad]

Please can someone advise if what we did today was valid or could we have been in some bother if our tickets were inspected?

We arrived today on a flight to Gatwick, and purchased a ticket at the station at 1642 - a group save for 3 adults at £11.30 each for the journey on GWR from Gatwick to North Camp - a direct service with no changes.

We got on board the 1659 which was then cancelled and we were turfed off. The 1729 and 1759 were also shown as cancelled - the next train was the 1829, which was likely to be late as it left Reading late.

Obviously we did not want to wait nearly 2 hours for the next train so looked at other options. We got the 1724 Gatwick -> Clapham Junction (Southern) service and then the 18:16 Clapham -> Farnborough Main (SWR) service and did not bother with the hike down to Farnborough North to get a train to North Camp. This saved us over an hour compared to waiting for a Gatwick->North Camp train.

Before we set off, we showed our ticket to 5 different staff at Gatwick and asked if going via Clapham was permitted on our tickets - one said no, two said yes and the other two did not know. The ticket stated "Not valid via London Terminals" - we concluded Clapham is not a London Terminal as trains don't generally terminate there. There was a also a restriction code of "BE" which no one at Gatwick could explain to us what that meant except one person who looked on a handheld device and said ours was an "outward journey" so we were not affected by the "do not board at Clapham until 7pm" restriction. So in summary, we asked staff at the station for advice and received a load of conflicting information.

I attach a copy of my paper ticket (with the number redacted as we are claiming delay repay just in case).

Many thanks!

 

[walkingsophie]

Hi, there is a couple things that apply:

NRCoT 13.1.2 https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/condition-13/ states that you can use a route as long as you can get the National Rail Journey Planner to show it, and if you search for Gatwick Airport to North Camp via Clapham Junction, you get a route that agrees with what you have done up to Brookwood, but takes the Alton branch from there, so you definitely can use the ticket via Clapham Junction and the Alton Branch.
However, according to both National Rail Journey Planner and the routeing guide, the ticket is not valid between Brookwood and Farnborough Main.

The code BE is related to time restrictions, so is not relevant in this case.

According to PRO article 16 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2007/1371/article/16 given that your delay was longer than an hour you have a right to be rerouted by GWR, so you could have asked for a rerouteing via Farnborough if you were sure you wanted to go via there.

 

[Benjwri]

According to PRO article 16 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2007/1371/article/16 given that your delay was longer than an hour you have a right to be rerouted by GWR, so you could have asked for a rerouteing via Farnborough if you were sure you wanted to go via there.

Important to note this does not give you the right to just get on a train. You must ask the TOC and in theory they must reroute you. In practice this is rarely the case and you would then have to buy a new ticket valid for the service and claim it back. In many cases this will involve taking them to court.

 

[Swedenorer]

According to PRO article 16 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2007/1371/article/16 given that your delay was longer than an hour you have a right to be rerouted by GWR, so you could have asked for a rerouteing via Farnborough if you were sure you wanted to go via there.

And good luck with that!

I would never rely on this withered arm of the GWR - they are frequently terminated at Redhill for which the service from Gatwick is now very much reduced. 3 per hour aside from the GWR effort.

Anytime Single to North Camp via Clapham Junction £19.80 1h 47m change at Ash Vale compared with £19.10 57m direct
Farnborough £22 via Woking and Brookwood

 

[MrToad]

Thanks all - that is a great bit of advice about using the National Rail Journey planner so I will file that one away for future reference.

I have put in a delay repay claim. It will be interesting to see if they base the delay on the expected time my planned train was scheduled to get into North Camp (1759) with the time we would have arrived at North Camp on the first direct service (1949) - a delay of 110 minutes, or whether they actually expected me to route via Clapham and Alton and therefore will reduce my claim down to less than an hour, which I may have been able to do as soon as we were evicted from the 1659 about 10 minutes before it was due to leave.

Apart from entering the station at Gatwick our tickets were not scanned or checked - we were let out of Farnborough main through the wide gates as we had luggage after a cursory glance at our tickets to make sure we had one rather than any of the details on it, and both Ash Vale and North Camp do not have barriers, so they have no real way of knowing the exact route we took. The Delay-Repay website of course does not ask for the details of the journey we actually took which I find surprising - just the train we wanted to catch and how late we arrived at our destination - which I selected as 60-119 minutes which would be correct whether we went to Farnborough Main, Ash Vale or North Camp.

I also find it a bit concerning that staff gave out potentially incorrect advice which could have seen us with penalty fares or prosecutions. In their defence, they were being plagued with dozens of frustrated people trying to get home, and some I suspect were there simply to dispatch trains and not act as a travel agent. It was not just the North Downs Line affected - it was Thameslink, Southern, the lot with cancellations.

My Plan B of going to the Wetherspoons they have opened Land Side in the South Terminal and sitting there for a few hours until a train appeared was not met with approval by either my wife or my lad.

 

[Kite159]

"Not via London Terminals" is perfectly fine to use it as far as Clapham Junction. Compared with a cheaper 'Via Gomshall" ticket.

Although like others have said, if it was me I would have caught an Alton bound service to Ash Vale considering that station is less than 10 minutes walk from North Camp.

 

[MrToad]

Delay repay claim accepted - full refund as delay was more than an hour.