I witnessed a very good example of TOC joined up thinking concerning connections at the start of the year that proves that such acts of good will do still occur in the rail industry: I was booked on the 19:00 Edinburgh-Kings Cross East Coast service on the first Sunday after new year, which is the last train to London from Edinburgh on a Sunday. The train arrived at Waverley from Glasgow on time, and was then held for around 40 minutes: The reason? The afternoon Aberdeen to London HST had failed enroute to Edinburgh, and was dragged into Edinburgh exceptionally late at 19:35, where it terminated and all the passengers were transferred to our service, so that all the passengers from north of Edinburgh could still make it back to their various English destinations. If the 19:00 Edinburgh-Kings Cross hadn't been held to meet the HST, the passengers from the service would have had to spend the night in Edinburgh, and the failed HST was even platformed at Waverley to allow a direct transfer from the adjacent platform face to the London train. I thought that was a really nice gesture from East Coast and all concerned. At that time on an evening the Edinburgh-Newcastle section of the ECML is relatively quiet, so there would be few knock on effects of the 19:00 departing Edinburgh late.
On the flip side, I also have a friend who was given a Cheltenham to Birmingham taxi ride by Crosscountry, as the FGW service he caught from Bath to Cheltenham was running late and as such missed its' connection with the last Birmingham bound XC service, which he was booked to catch at Cheltenham. At least Crosscountry were kind enough to pay his taxi fare! Given the nature of Cheltenham station though, with just one platform each way, it would have been impossible to hold the XC service in this instance.
