RobinDroppings
New Member
I have an annual season ticket between Goring and Oxford, and as some of you will be aware, replacement of the Botley Road railway bridge earlier this month meant that the line was closed between Didcot and Oxford between February 1st and 8th. A rail replacement bus was in operation instead, and although I'd prefer to have driven to Oxford and used the Park and Ride instead, having already paid for the train journey I didn't fancy also paying for petrol and parking on top. So I gritted my teeth and went on the bus (which at least was a decent coach) for the week.
On Thursday 5th February I got the usual 0713 from Goring - this was almost ten minutes late getting to Didcot but we still managed to get the timetabled 0750 bus from Didcot to Oxford. This was then badly delayed in traffic, meaning we reached Oxford at 0851 rather than the 0835 which was scheduled, and GWR then further annoyed us passengers by insisting on a ticket check when we got off the bus and that delayed us even more.
As we were more than 15 minutes late on the timetable of the day, I put in a Delay Repay claim to GWR who said that Cross Country were running the bus service and they forwarded the claim to them. Cross Country have now replied saying the bus ran to time; while this is obviously untrue, the wider issue is that unlike GWR, Cross Country do not give Delay Repay for 15 - 30 minutes of lateness so even if they agreed with me on the time the bus arrived in Oxford I still wouldn't have got anything.
As the Delay Repay amount would be only just more than a quid, it's hardly worth taking this any further but is it really correct that GWR can just wash its hands of the whole thing like this? I'd assumed the rail replacement bus was a GWR one and that their usual Delay Repay would apply so it was something of a surprise to find that this is not apparently the case.
Thanks
Robin
On Thursday 5th February I got the usual 0713 from Goring - this was almost ten minutes late getting to Didcot but we still managed to get the timetabled 0750 bus from Didcot to Oxford. This was then badly delayed in traffic, meaning we reached Oxford at 0851 rather than the 0835 which was scheduled, and GWR then further annoyed us passengers by insisting on a ticket check when we got off the bus and that delayed us even more.
As we were more than 15 minutes late on the timetable of the day, I put in a Delay Repay claim to GWR who said that Cross Country were running the bus service and they forwarded the claim to them. Cross Country have now replied saying the bus ran to time; while this is obviously untrue, the wider issue is that unlike GWR, Cross Country do not give Delay Repay for 15 - 30 minutes of lateness so even if they agreed with me on the time the bus arrived in Oxford I still wouldn't have got anything.
As the Delay Repay amount would be only just more than a quid, it's hardly worth taking this any further but is it really correct that GWR can just wash its hands of the whole thing like this? I'd assumed the rail replacement bus was a GWR one and that their usual Delay Repay would apply so it was something of a surprise to find that this is not apparently the case.
Thanks
Robin
