LNER connecting services validity

[blanik]

Ok - a little bit complicated.

I booked a Welwyn Garden City to Paisley Gilmour Street advance on LNER website for my disabled daughter, with railcard.
The normal routing provided by the website is
Great Northern WGC-Stevenage, LNER Stevenage-Peterborough, LNER Peterborough-Edinburgh, Scotrail Edinburgh-Paisley Gilmour street ( Via Glasgow queen st and bus transfer ).


This time for a 12:28 departure, the routing was the same as above except that the Stevenage-Peterborough leg was via Thameslink.

This had a scheduled arrival at 13:39 with the PBO-EDB leaving at 13:49 giving her only 10 mins for connection, including changing platforms via the footbridge at PBO.

As she had passenger assistance, and to make the transfer easier and less stressful I recommended she left 30 mins earlier from WGC, got a LNER connection from SVG to PBO 12:27 arr 12:57 ( which I reserved a seat on ) to have a same platform change at PBO and more time.

I did send her an e-mail with my suggested earlier train, the reason why, the seating reservation, and the Passenger assistance ref which she showed to the Train Manager
on the LNER SVG to PBO.

I spoke to him, and he was friendly and polite, but insisted that the ticket was only valid on Thameslink between SVG and PBO, and LNER could not be considered a connecting service to the PBO-EDI service, and charged her a standard fare of £32.70.

This was an e-ticket? Aztec code with printed itinerary.

So my questions are:-

1) Is the printed itinerary on the ticket a suggested timing, or is it a restriction? So only valid on Thameslink, because the suggested service was a Thameslink.

2) If I had a ticket on collection instead, would it have shown WGC-PYG with a seat on PBO-EDI and valid on connecting services? If so would LNER SVG-PBO be connecting.

Separately - and never a problem - at the Scotrail end, they have never bothered which routing she has ever taken from EDB to PYG, either via Glasgow Central, or Queen Street/Bus ( if I meet her ), regardless of the itinerary on the ticket.

I will throw this at LNER customer services, but just wondering where I stand.

Thanks

Edit:

Just playing with the LNER website - if I try and book the same ticket for 2nd December filtered for via Edinburgh it come up with
12:28 departure - same routing using Thamslink for SVG-PBO and a 10 min connection

10:58 departure - save overall journey time, but LNER for SVG-PBO with 21 min connection.

 

[gray1404]

If you could upload a copy of her ticket it will be much easier to advise.

 

[Hadders]

Firstly, it's poor from LNER given the circumstances you describe wigth your daughter being disabled and passenger assist having been booked.

Thameslink trains are technically reservable so if your ticket was an Advance ticket you should follow that itinerary. The reason why Thameslink have reservations (called counted place reservations) is so that they can offer their own Advance fares, and because Advance tickets have to be linked to a specific train this is achived by a fudge of the reservation system.

Had your daughter missed the connection at Peterborough then she wold have been entitled to travel on the next train and claim delay repay. I understand why, in the circumstances you would want to do everything you could to keep to the booked itinerary given the booked passenger assistance.

If you use our own ticketing site you can specify additional interchange time where you change trains so it is worth considering for future use. It's also likely that our site will find a cheaper price than booking direct with LNER.

Finally, I think it's worth raising a complaint with LNER about this. Technically the guard was correct by the letter of the law but some common sense should have been used.

 

[Haywain]

just wondering where I stand.

The ticket wasn't booked on that LNER service and therefore wasn't valid. If you want to book a journey with additional interchange time, the best thing is to do so at the outset. The forum site, driven by Trainsplit, is particularly good for doing this and may also find you cheaper fares.

 

[yorkie]

Ok - a little bit complicated.

I booked a Welwyn Garden City to Paisley Gilmour Street advance on LNER website for my disabled daughter, with railcard.
The normal routing provided by the website is
Great Northern WGC-Stevenage, LNER Stevenage-Peterborough, LNER Peterborough-Edinburgh, Scotrail Edinburgh-Paisley Gilmour street ( Via Glasgow queen st and bus transfer ).


This time for a 12:28 departure, the routing was the same as above except that the Stevenage-Peterborough leg was via Thameslink.
This had a scheduled arrival at 13:39 with the PBO-EDI leaving at 13:49 giving her only 10 mins for connection, including changing platforms via the footbridge at PBO.

As she had passenger assistance, and to make the transfer easier and less stressful I recommended she left 30 mins earlier from WGC, got a LNER connection from SVG to PBO 12:27 arr 12:57 ( which I reserved a seat on ) to have a same platform change at PBO and more time.

In future, either book this by phone to the passenger assistance people, or use a website that allows additional interchange time, such as the forum's site.

I did send her an e-mail with my suggested earlier train, the reason why, the seating reservation, and the Passenger assistance ref which she showed to the Train Manager
on the LNER SVG to PBO.
I spoke to him, and he was friendly and polite, but insisted that the ticket was only valid on Thameslink between SVG and PBO, and LNER could not be considered a connecting service to the PBO-EDI service, and charged her a standard fare of £32.70.

That was harsh but technically correct, as the ticket was not used in accordance with the itinerary.

For future reference, it is important to use the itinerary provided (unless delays make it impossible).

Our site will allow you to specify change at: Stevenage, or don't change at: Peterborough, as you desire.

I will throw this at LNER customer services, but just wondering where I stand.

It is worth pursuing with LNER as I do not believe the staff displayed much common sense, however technically it is correct.

Just playing with the LNER website - if I try and book the same ticket for 2nd December filtered for via Edinburgh it come up with
12:28 departure - same routing using Thamslink for SVG-PBO and a 10 min connection
10:58 departure - save overall journey time, but LNER for SVG-PBO with 21 min connction.

The LNER website will come up with whatever is the fastest at any given time, but if you want a custom itinerary, you need to book with us (and then book passenger assistance on the itinerary generated) or by phoning the passenger assistance team and booking by phone.

 

[gray1404]

What was the date of travel? Might be worth checking the train running data to see how tight the connections would have been such as if there were any delays on that day. It might in terms of your complaint justify why catching the earlier train was the prudent thing to do.

It is disappointing as it was only a short leg of an overall long journey and there was clearly no attempt to evade the fare. Quite honestly it's also shows a lack of compassion and understanding of the barriers disabled people face when traveling. I am sure if LNERs website allowed customers to add additional interchange time required due to their disability then you would have used this feature. Yet they have chosen to profit from this additional barrier and run the ability faced when traveling.