AP booking question

[Failed Unit]

Don't know if any of you know away around this.

I am trying to book a journey from Edinburgh - Lincoln on Saturday 16th January. Getting cheap fare OK, but I am offered the following journey which again is fine in theory.

1000 Edinburgh - Doncaster 1255
1304 Doncaster - Lincoln 1354.

Doncaster is a 7 minute connection station, but is there anyway I can get the booking engines to let me use the 0930 Edinburgh - Doncaster instead to give me a safety margin should the train be late. A 2 hour wait for the next train for even a small delay doesn't exicte me no matter what Doncaster has to offer! Even the other routes such as via Newark would mean I am over 2 hours late into Lincoln should I miss the booked connection.

The other question related to this, should I select the booked journey and the 1000 train is 9 minutes late would I be entitled to the full 2 hour compensation for the delay from the national express delay repay scheme as their small delay has made me 2 hours late (even if thier train ends up on time come London). I tried sending in a claim for something simular once when the 1600 Edinburgh - London was 7 minutes late into Newark meaing I missed the 1924 Newark - Market Rasen service (which has a valid 7 minutes connection at Newark). National express could not even be bothered replying to my letter and said when I chased them up by email they needed to see my validated tickets which I had sent with the original letter. Annoying considering again it was an AP ticket so I couldn't have travelled on any other train than the 1600 anyway. Glad national express are going there customer service in my experience of both east coast and central trains doesn't exist. /rant

 

[yorkie]

I'd try random things like via Bentley, or via Conisbrough, or via Leeds (but no-one will mind if you stay on and that may delay you too much and make you get the 0900!) Just keep trying random via points 'til it works!

Someone once got a decent break in York by specifying to go round the Harrogate loop!

 

[gordonthemoron]

pity the UK booking engines don't allow via where you can enter the duration of stopover, or the ability to choose longer connection times

 

[Failed Unit]

Thanks Yorkie, Asked for Via Market Rasen which has given me the 0930 and trains via Barnetby (which as you state I don't need to use). If I had thought about it better in the first place I would have just requested to Market Rasen in the first place!

 

[John @ home]

I am trying to book a journey from Edinburgh - Lincoln on Saturday 16th January. ... is there anyway I can get the booking engines to let me use the 0930 Edinburgh - Doncaster

There is a system which should work here, but appears not to, and there is a work-round which may help you.

For simplicity, the work-round first. On the NXEC site http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/ ask for a ticket from Edinburgh to Lincoln via Retford. This currently offers a ticket on the 0930 from Edinburgh for £14.50, or £9.55 with a railcard. These prices include the NXEC 11% online booking discount. This happens to work on this occasion because the connection from the 0930 goes via Retford but is overtaken by the connection from the 1000 which avoids Retford. But it's only a work-round.

The system which should work is this. Go to the National Rail site http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ In the Journey Planner section click Advanced Search Options. Enter Edinburgh to Lincoln at 0930 on 16 January 2010. In the Changing Trains section click Increase Interchange Time and in the drop-doen box choose 1/2 hour increment. Click SEARCH. That offers a ticket on the 0930 from Edinburgh at a price of £16.30, which is the £14.50 price above without the NXEC 11% online booking discount. Click SELECT. Here the difficulty arises - National Rail don't actually sell any train tickets. The next screen invites you to choose to buy the ticket from any of 18 train companies and 2 third-party retailers. When you do that, you get an error message such as Sorry we can't find your ticket. Please select another ticket.

Please report this fault to National Rail at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/contact/feedback/ and ask them when it will be fixed. The more of us who report it, the greater chance that they will do something about it. If you don't get a resolution to the problem within a month, escalate it to Passenger Focus.

should I select the booked journey and the 1000 train is 9 minutes late would I be entitled to the full 2 hour compensation for the delay from the national express delay repay scheme

Yes. This has happened to me. I chose to use the train company's customer service feedback form instead of the pre-printed Delay Repay form because it seemed to me that there was no scope to explain what happened on the DR form. I wrote train delayed at xxxx. This caused missed connection at yyyy and further delay. The rail travel vouchers arrived promptly on that occasion. The words in the NXEC Passenger Charter which set out your rights are:

If you are delayed when travelling with us we will apologise and make things up to you.
Our compensation system, called ‘Delay Repay’, applies to all ticket holders (including Season Ticket holders) and irrespective of what caused the delay. If you arrive at your destination station late as a result of delay to and/or cancellation of National Express East Coast trains, it works as follows: <snip>
• 120 minutes delay or longer = compensation of at least 100% of the cost of a single ticket or at least 100% of the cost of a return ticket (i.e. both ways, not just one way).
http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/Documents/PDFs/Passenger Charter updated May 09.pdf

I tried sending in a claim for something simular once ... National express could not even be bothered replying to my letter and said when I chased them up by email they needed to see my validated tickets which I had sent with the original letter.

The first and most important piece of advice is always take a photocopy of tickets and the claim form before sending them off. I do find that NXEC are the worst TOC at responding to Delay Repay claims. But I always get there in the end. If they don't resolve the issue within a month, again escalate to Passenger Focus.

John

 

[ashworth]

The old Qjump website, before it became part of trainline, used to have the facility in the more options section to request longer times for connections.
I used to regularly use this option when booking tickets for elderly relatives who felt more comfortable with longer times at connecting stations.
It was also often quite useful for finding cheaper tickets. Sometimes by requesting a longer waiting time for connections it would come up with cheaper priced tickets by alternative services that did not offer a quick connection.
If it could be done by Qjump in the past, I wonder why it can't be done by the current websites.

 

[dan_atki]

Just found something rather interesting on the WebTIS based system after having a play around.

If you use the 'Text only' version (which is a lot bulkier than the main Mixing Deck) then a whole plethora of hidden options suddenly become available - some 'Use London Underground' and 'Walk between stations' are useful, but even more so is 'Extended interchange times'.

Selecting this option for the above journey allows you to book a ticket on the 0930 from Edinburgh to connect onto the 1304 from Doncaster. Just a shame this is hidden really...

 

[yorkie]

The "Text only" option looks useful, but when I asked for York to Harrow, instead of saying walk to Euston (I kept walks ticked but unticked LU etc) it said to go via Highbury & Islington and Willesden Jn! so I am not sure the walks option works too well

 

[tony_mac]

yes, thanks for that, it could come in handy.
is Kings Cross to Euston officially an interchange? although it is less walking than the two Warrington stations.

 

[yorkie]

It may be determined as requiring the use of LU, which is bonkers!