Cross-TOC Ticket Acceptance

[ah-media]

All.

Firstly, apologies if there is a better place for this to go - Mods, please move if this is the case.

I was interested in Cross-TOC acceptance of tickets when there are problems.

Yesterday, I was at Three Bridges waiting for the 0757 to London Bridge. Due to flooding it was cancelled, as was the 0812 - the 0827 eventually ran through fast. I was told by the station staff that the next FCC train was 0857 as it had terminated at TBD - an hour delay to my train.

I had a FCC only ticket - hence I'm not talking about jumping on a Southern service which would have been way easier!!

So my question is: At what point would (or should) Southern start accepting FCC tickets. What are the triggers to start and to stop ticket acceptance?

Appreciate that this should no longer be an issue post TSGN franchise, however, it was an issue yesterday.

 

[ValleyLines142]

In general I've found that Southern and First Capital Connect always mutually accept each other's tickets at times of disruption.

Similarly CrossCountry and First Great Western are accepting each other's tickets down in the south west at the moment as a result of the massive disruption with the freak weather we've had of late.

 

[Pretendolino]

I suppose it has to be based on the scale of the delays and the ability to use alternative services (from the same TOC). If you're severely delayed on Southern and the only other possible train to get is FCC, then ticket acceptance should begin then.

When it gets to the point where other Southern services are running reasonably well, the ticket acceptance should stop. Just my view.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . .

So my question is: At what point would (or should) Southern start accepting FCC tickets. What are the triggers to start and to stop ticket acceptance?

. . .

Whatever those triggers are, I am sure that they are not automatic (in the sense that if the specified circumstances arise, then passengers may assume that tickets will be accepted by other Companies without any explicit statement).

The important factor for a passenger to know is whether the Company has announced their acceptance of another Company's ticket-holding passengers. That announcement may often be predictable by defined circumstances, but it is the announcement which makes the tickets acceptable (irregardless of the operational circumstances) and not the circumstances in themselves (and whether they were predictable or otherwise).

 

[CyrusWuff]

The trigger for "automatic" ticket acceptance is a TOC declaring "Customer Service Level 2" (CSL2 for short) though it's still wise for them to double check with the relevant TOCs prior to announcing acceptance publicly, lest they've got problems too.

 

[greatkingrat]

So what is the trigger for declaring "Customer Service Level 2"!

 

[CyrusWuff]

So what is the trigger for declaring "Customer Service Level 2"!

That's up to the individual TOCs to decide as there isn't a national standard.

Something like a train failing on the approach to Paddington is unlikely to result in CSL2 being declared as it can be worked around, but a train failing on the approach to Fenchurch Street would usually result in CSL2 being declared because it's a two track railway.

 

[swt_passenger]

There was a period at the end of last week where FGW were telling Reading to London pax about acceptance on SWT, (but of course walk up 'any permitted' fares already do this as a matter of course anyway), but at the same time SWT's problems west of Yeovil had them suggesting people travelled via Paddington - so I guess the advice cancelled out...