East Coast - terrible service!

[johntea]

Generally I've had no problems in the past with East Coast but this evening I was travelling home from London Kings Cross to Castleford and due to a person being hit by a train near Stevenage I missed my connection to Castleford at Wakefield.

Being Sunday my 20:35 departure from London would mean changing at Wakefield Westgate and walking to Wakefield Kirkgate for the connecting Northern Rail train to Castleford. (This is as per the journey planner). So to get told by the member of staff that they would struggle to get me a taxi as 'we don't have trains to Castleford from here you should have got off at Leeds' wasn't a particularly great start!

He then asked the 4 black and whites outside if they would take me home (or, to Castleford station certainly) all of which flat out refused, he took all their badge numbers and told me to get my own taxi and send the receipt in to East Coast. Again, as far as I'm aware I should NOT have to do this.

After that display I was informed by the black and whites 'off the record' as such that the reason they wouldn't do the job is apparently East Coast haven't been paying them for the contract...in the end I just phoned a private hire and got a receipt ready to fire off to East Coast - I assume I am entitled to a cash refund for that rather than rail vouchers?

All a bit of a mess really.

 

[185]

Bit of a grey area where suicides or vandalism (ie non railway-fault situations) happen. Anyone shed any light on this? I hear things have changed recently with some operators.

From a customer service angle, I'm sure EC will offer something (cash/vouchers) for this, but I do wonder if they are obligated to in these instances.

 

[bb21]

Is that the last train of the day to Castleford? If so, then yes, they should.

Some staff need to be reminded of their company's obligations under the NRCoC sometimes.

 

[johntea]

Yes, the 20:35 would get into Westgate about 22:40 (Assuming no delay) and the plan would be to then walk to Kirkgate for the last Northern Rail service of the evening at around 23:30. (The last Castleford train leaving Leeds would have been at 22:17).

I've no doubt East Coast will resolve the issue based on previous experiences, but it wasn't the greatest customer service experience in the world.

 

[bb21]

I've no doubt East Coast will resolve the issue based on previous experiences, but it wasn't the greatest customer service experience in the world.

Not at all.

Passengers should not have to be prepared to pay for his own taxi and then claim the fare back from the TOC afterwards. What if the passenger had no money on him, or if the destination is quite far away hence incurring huge taxi bills?

 

[theblackwatch]

I read this thread with interest, as I too was caught up in this incident, travelling on the 19.00 from King's Cross, which eventually arrived at York 2 hours late. Unfortunately, your experience does not match the service provided at York, where a member of station staff was waiting for passengers who had missed connections and very efficiently sorted out taxis for around 15-20 people to various destinations. Five of us were despatched in a cab to Starbeck and Harrogate, others were going to Malton, Scarborough, Hornbeam Park, Garforth and no doubt elsewhere - those were just the ones I heard.

I'm pretty sure that at York, East Coast has some sort of account with the station taxis, as he just went into the taxi office and cabs started to arrive very quickly. I find it extremely surprising that EC appears to have no such thing at Wakefield, and perhaps in your correspondence with them you should ask why this appears to be the case - there must be other occasions at Wakefield when passengers alight and have missed their connections. To expect a passenger to fork out for a cab and claim it back isn't acceptable in my view, and as bb21 pointed out, they may not have the money. When I jumped out of my taxi, the meter reading was around £35-40 - not the amount people will keep spare in their wallets!

I'm sure you could do no right in this instance - had you carried on to Leeds as the staff member suggested, the staff there would (and probably quite rightly) have said that the train you got off didn't have a booked connection to Castleford.

Please let us know how you get on.

 

[muttynut]

you should have gone through to leeds

 

[theblackwatch]

you should have gone through to leeds

On what authority should he have gone through to Leeds, given his ticket said to change at Wakefield? Are you saying that passengers should go off route of their own accord, to a destination where there is no connection, and the TOC will then happily sort it out? And how are they expected to know to do that? Surely, if a passenger is expected to do such a thing, the guard should advise them.

 

[Deerfold]

It doesn't excuse what happened but staff at Leeds seem far more used to organising masses of taxis.

I used to regularly catch the 2005 or 2035 from London which connected into the last two trains out of Leeds towards Keighley and ended up in taxis 4 times in two years.

They were shared on 3 occasions and on each occasion actually took me to my home rather than the station.

The only delays have been in getting enough taxis for everyone.

 

[34D]

My Leeds taxi experience a month or so ago was that it took 20 mins for the cabs to be summoned (as it had to be black and whites booked by phone, not the guys queued up outside. Had I known that i would have ran for my last bus.

 

[Antman]

My sister and her partner had a similar problem a few years back when their train was delayed and they missed the last connection from Grantham to Boston, they said staff at Grantham couldn't have been more helpful, they had taxis waiting and passengers were soon on their way.

 

[johntea]

Could someone with access to the relevant information please advise what time the 20:35 London Kings Cross to Leeds actually departed on 04/08/13?
I seem to recall it was around 21:50

 

[muttynut]

On what authority should he have gone through to Leeds, given his ticket said to change at Wakefield? Are you saying that passengers should go off route of their own accord, to a destination where there is no connection, and the TOC will then happily sort it out? And how are they expected to know to do that? Surely, if a passenger is expected to do such a thing, the guard should advise them.

there was disruption ...... so why didnt the op ask the guard for advice as to where to change after all thats their job ..... also if the ticket had final destination as castleford then the company is duty bound toget the ticket holder to castleford via taxi .... but there again you probally didnt know that as you probably dont work on the railway

 

[Deerfold]

there was disruption ...... so why didnt the op ask the guard for advice as to where to change after all thats their job ..... also if the ticket had final destination as castleford then the company is duty bound toget the ticket holder to castleford via taxi .... but there again you probally didnt know that as you probably dont work on the railway

Why would a passenger think they may be supposed to change somewhere else when there is no connecting train left from either destination?

If I was doing that journey I'd have probably looked to see if there was an alternative way of getting to Castleford by train and if not, got as far along my booked itinary as I could.

If Wakefield is not good at arranging taxis, pehaps the guard should have made an announcement to that effect?

I suspect theblackwatch knows that the railway is duty bound to get the passenger there.

 

[theblackwatch]

there was disruption ...... so why didnt the op ask the guard for advice as to where to change after all thats their job .....

Surely if a company wants you to change your alighting point as detailed on your itinerary, surely they would tell you rather than expect you to ask? The guard could have provided advice when he did a 'grip'.

also if the ticket had final destination as castleford then the company is duty bound toget the ticket holder to castleford via taxi .... but there again you probally didnt know that as you probably dont work on the railway

But didn't appear to bother to want to do so on Sunday evening. Maybe the staff at Wakefield had forgotten that? You're directing that comment to the wrong place!

 

[yorkie]

you should have gone through to leeds

Why?

There was no train from Leeds, and Castleford is closer to Wakefield than Leeds.

Is there something I'm missing?

(I would agree that the Guard should be sought to obtain advice, I do not know if that happened in this case, but the best advice would likely have been to change at Wakefield, as that would keep the taxi cost, and overall delay, to a minimum)

 

[muttynut]

if in doubt ASK .... cant say what the staff at wakefield were doing as i dont know the full details or have seen the op's ticket for final destination .......... remember in disruption it vital to double check or even triple check with staff ie guard, travelcenter, customer services via phone text even twitter it saves alot of heartache.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Could someone with access to the relevant information please advise what time the 20:35 London Kings Cross to Leeds actually departed on 04/08/13?
I seem to recall it was around 21:50

Yes, it appears to have departed Kings Cross at 21:51, arriving at Wakefield Westgate at 23:50.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y50733/2013/08/04/advanced

 

[muttynut]

Yes, it appears to have departed Kings Cross at 21:51, arriving at Wakefield Westgate at 23:50.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y50733/2013/08/04/advanced

well there you go i would be straight on to the guard for advice

 

[Deerfold]

if in doubt ASK .... cant say what the staff at wakefield were doing as i dont know the full details or have seen the op's ticket for final destination .......... remember in disruption it vital to double check or even triple check with staff ie guard, travelcenter, customer services via phone text even twitter it saves alot of heartache.

But why would the OP be in doubt?

They've a connection detailed at Wakefield. Wakefield appears to be the closest place to Castleford they can get to?

Would you expect any of these sources to have suggested going to Leeds? If so, why? I would have thought they'd have wanted to minimise taxi costs.

 

[johntea]

The advice given by the guard on board the East Coast service was 'to seek the station supervisor at your alighting station' i.e. Wakefield.

From what I heard from one of the taxi drivers they weren't happy to do the jobs because East Coast haven't been paying them which I will mention in my letter to East Coast as if that is the case it is a situation which needs resolving.

I just want East Coast to be made aware of the issues as I consider myself a fairly switched on railway user, it could have just as easily been someone with less experience in the same situation.

 

[theblackwatch]

So it sounds like the OP actually followed the guard's advice. (Thanks for posting that johntea.)

 

[Haywain]

Maybe the staff at Wakefield had forgotten that?

Clearly they hadn't forgotten, otherwise they wouldn't have been asking the taxi drivers to take the job. In the circumstances, I don't see what else the station staff could have done.