Cry Me Arriva

[JaguarLover101]

So here we go, I'm travelling from Wrexham to Oxford, my friend was travelling through Chester and Birmingham on advance tickets So we decided we would take the train to Chester and meet up there, simple.

So I went to the Arriva Website and keyed in Wrexham to Oxford Via Birmingham New Street, then I found the journey that married up with their journey:

So I booked the train, I decided to book Anytime so that I could return whenever I wanted to.

The tickets arrive and all seems well, apart from them stating "Not Via London" but at first I didn't think anything of it, I'm not going to London.

I decided to try and book seats for the journey, this is where the problems started. I rang up Arriva Trains Wales and asked them to reserve a seat on the Virgin and Crosscountry parts of the Journey, the lady on the phone said that there was no Virgin part and that I was leaving Wrexham at 7:40, I said that my booking confirmation said otherwise, she said that my tickets were not via London and I wouldn't be allowed on the Virgin train as it went to London.

The way I read it, wouldn't "Not Via London" just mean that I can't go to London? The journey I want to take can only be seen if I put in "via Birmingham New Street" so does this mean its not a permissible route?

 

[NSEFAN]

"Not Via London" applies to your journey. The fact that the train so happens to go there later on isn't relevant.

 

[Merseysider]

Nip over to your local ticket office if you have time.

Or failing that, get in touch with XC on Twitter. They're always more than happy to arrange seat reservations on their own services, and can probably sort out reservations on Virgin too.

 

[Bletchleyite]

ATW are talking rubbish. "Not via London" doesn't dictate which trains you can use. It jus means that you can only take the subset of Permitted Routes that do not pass through London.

You could as an option ask VT and XC to do the reservations. XC will do them via Twitter.

 

[AlterEgo]

Literally never heard of a staff member thinking this about a route restriction. Quite remarkable!

 

[JaguarLover101]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll get in touch with Crosscountry and see if they can get me some reservations.

 

[bakerstreet]

Can I say that in the time I have been on this forum I haven't enjoyed a post title more

 

[Techniquest]

Can I say that in the time I have been on this forum I haven't enjoyed a post title more

Likewise, it got me super curious! Not to mention laughing at the ridiculous suggestion seat reservations couldn't be done, nor the use of the 0700 from Wrexham. Oh dear! Not the first time I've heard of ATW giving incorrect advice this year...

I really, really want to use this thread's title in one of my trip reports some time too!

 

[JaguarLover101]

Can I say that in the time I have been on this forum I haven't enjoyed a post title more

Glad you liked it, with Arriva Busses and trains dominating my area, I use that phrase a lot

 

[greatkingrat]

I suspect there was a misunderstanding on what trains the OP wanted to take as their chosen option is slower and doesn't appear in journey planners by default. So I guess the person in the call centre was looking at the 0747 departure (which doesn't use Virgin) and when the OP started insisting they were travelling with Virgin incorrectly assumed they wanted to go via London.

 

[JaguarLover101]

I suspect there was a misunderstanding on what trains the OP wanted to take as their chosen option is slower and doesn't appear in journey planners by default. So I guess the person in the call centre was looking at the 0747 departure (which doesn't use Virgin) and when the OP started insisting they were travelling with Virgin incorrectly assumed they wanted to go via London.

When I told the lady I wanted to travel on the Virgin she said "That journey doesnt exist on my timetable, so it must have been cancelled" I keyed it back into the ATW website and told her that it showed when I put "via Birmingham New Street" in and was told that I shouldnt do that and that, then went on to say that it wasn't valid...

 

[gray1404]

I'd complain about this. Do you have her name? I'd state the number you were calling from, date and time. I'm surprised you were not given reservations when you booked online. I wonder how many other people this lady is given naff information to.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Literally never heard of a staff member thinking this about a route restriction. Quite remarkable!

How do ATW provide their call centre service?

 

[JaguarLover101]

I'd complain about this. Do you have her name? I'd state the number you were calling from, date and time. I'm surprised you were not given reservations when you booked online. I wonder how many other people this lady is given naff information to.

I couldn't book reservations online as I needed specific seats and unless I was booking from the TOC directly they wouldn't let me change the auto assigned seats.

She did give me her name at the start, however, it was quite complicated and I can't for the life of me remember it.

Crosscountry were very helpful on twitter, seat is reserved, Virgin said that they were unable to but were very apologetic about it so not really complaining.

Also decided to have a go at using the routeing guide to see if it really was a permitted route and what do you know, it was, route code "RJ" valid via the WCML

 

[gray1404]

Next time you are passing a station ask them to reserve your seat. I would still email or tweet ATW about your bad experience.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Madness. Shear madness. That said I stopped booking tickets through Scotrail when all of a sudden they started insisting a route I'd been using for years wasnt allowed, yet several other TOCS plus trainsplit offered me it! I wonder if this is the next cost cutting drive, get rid of railway call centres accept for customer service and passenger assist and doing it by being crap?


As to the thread title I agree fantastic, techniquest woant wate long for an excuse to use it iether, he simply needs to ask for something that isnt a CDR to Cardif, Birmingham or Worcester at the booking office in Hereford which, incidentally is run by ATW so there we've come full circle!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

If you do get the Virgin service from Wrexham/Chester arr Crewe 0754, you should be able to catch the 0801 Virgin Crewe-Birmingham-Euston (from P5).
Change at Wolverhampton for the 0841 XC Manchester-Bournemouth (which overtakes the Virgin there) and you can be in Oxford by 1013 (no need to change at New St).
Journey planners miss this option because of minimum connection times at Crewe, but normally it's OK.

Yet another way is to stay on the Euston train as far as Rugby (0845/51), and then change into a VT Birmingham service there, and again at Coventry (0902/25) to pick up the same XC Bournemouth service arr Oxford 1013.

None of this involves going "via London".

 

[Blindtraveler]

Wasnt aware the double back RUG COV was allowed, thankyou

 

[theageofthetra]

Can I say that in the time I have been on this forum I haven't enjoyed a post title more

Seconded. Bravo

 

[Gareth Marston]

I had to "exclude" Shrewsbury and Rugby to recreate the journey in STAR but it is valid.

However I have a good geographical knowledge of the UK and the railway system.

Online journey planners just default to what they think is the quickest route and if you get call centre staff who maybe aren't from the UK they are just going to do what the computer says. This is wear having the ability to talk to someone face to face does win, you can explain what you want to do and the chances are that staff @ Wrexham General have routed people to Birmingham that way before are fairly high.

 

[JaguarLover101]

If you do get the Virgin service from Wrexham/Chester arr Crewe 0754, you should be able to catch the 0801 Virgin Crewe-Birmingham-Euston (from P5).
Change at Wolverhampton for the 0841 XC Manchester-Bournemouth (which overtakes the Virgin there) and you can be in Oxford by 1013 (no need to change at New St).
Journey planners miss this option because of minimum connection times at Crewe, but normally it's OK.

Yet another way is to stay on the Euston train as far as Rugby (0845/51), and then change into a VT Birmingham service there, and again at Coventry (0902/25) to pick up the same XC Bournemouth service arr Oxford 1013.

None of this involves going "via London".

The first way you suspected was my original plan, run through Crewe to try and get the earlier connection, but then my friend dropped a bombshell by booking advance tickets, So that went out the window!

 

[roversfan2001]

Wasnt aware the double back RUG COV was allowed, thankyou

It's not a doubleback, the train from North Wales goes via the Trent Valley so doesn't pass through Coventry.

 

[Karl]

I too have to add my congratulations to the thread title!! Award winning!

 

[Rover]

I must be the only one on this site that had no idea whatsoever what the title was all about. Had to google it - it's really good, the title that is, not Justin Timberlake!

 

[BlueFox]

I must be the only one on this site that had no idea whatsoever what the title was all about. Had to google it - it's really good, the title that is, not Justin Timberlake!

Must be an age thing.

I know nothing about Justin Timberlake.

The title made me think of this:

[youtube]LbwjQSBH0sE[/youtube]

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I'm just waiting for a thread about an ATW service failing to make a scheduled station call, which will inevitably be titled "Arriva Runs Through It".

 

[Albion91]

I'm just waiting for a thread about an ATW service failing to make a scheduled station call, which will inevitably be titled "Arriva Runs Through It".

Like a virgin?: https://twitter.com/andrewvandoorn/status/512628688866000896

 

[Darandio]

Like a virgin?: https://twitter.com/andrewvandoorn/status/512628688866000896

Not at all uncommon, nothing to see here.

 

[Condor7]

Can I say that in the time I have been on this forum I haven't enjoyed a post title more

I couldn't agree more...brilliant!

 

[JaguarLover101]

So today was the day!

Thankfully, no problems at all, managed to find a table seat on the virgin train (score!) had my ticket checked, conductor didn't bat an eyelid!

Thanks Arriva for your correct and informative advice...

Ah well, quick question, for the journey back I was wondering whether it would be able to upgrade to First Class for just the Crosscountry leg of the journey? Is there anything similar to Weekend First during the week?