Missed last connection at Chester due to poor information at Euston

[Old Yard Dog]

Yesterday I planned to return from Euston to Little Sutton with a booked seat (and off -peak SVR) on the 2027 EUS-CRE, connecting on to 2229 CRE-CTR, 2300 CTR-HOO, 2327 HOO-LTT.

The 2027 to CRE and PRE was obviously going to be a tad late but was shown on the boards at Euston as "Boarding around 2025" then "Boarding shortly" so I waited. The 2030 EUS-MAN was showing as boarding around 2022 so it wasn't obvious which would go first.

I got seriously worried when a platform was announced for the 2050 EUS-PRE while I was still waiting for the 2027. So I took a punt and rushed across to take the 2039 for CRE and LIV which the man on the gate said would leave on time, which it did. This meant I missed the 2229 CRE-CTR but caught the 2307 CRE-CTR. This arrived on time on P1 at 2330 just as my last train home at 2330 to HOO and LTT was leaving P7B.

So I was stranded at Chester and had to get my elderly wife to come and pick me up.

Presumably I am entitled to compensation but I cannot work out how much and it is unclear from the Avanti website how I should go about claiming this. Can somebody please advise?

What irks me is that nobody at Euston told me that the 2027 was going to be seriously delayed. They could have advised CRE passengers to catch the 2030 EUS-MAN which left just a couple of minutes late.
Had they done so, I would have made the 2229 CRE-CTR. In the end the 2027 left EUS at 2101 and arrived at CRE at 2300. So I would have ended up on the same 2307 CRE-CTR train and be stranded at CTR.

 

[island]

You'd have been entitled to alternative transport to your final ticketed rail destination, such as a taxi.

You can claim DelayRepay based on when you would have gotten to Little Sutton had you done so, or your actual arrival.

 

[JBuchananGB]

The way Avanti Delay Repay web site works is such that you insert your intended itinerary and supporting tickets and bookings, and state which length of delay you are claiming for.
They will look at the train running data and decide what to offer you. If this seems OK to you, great. If not, then you have to engage with them on the details.
Last time I used it I told them I was delayed 95 minutes, and they compensated me for >120 minutes which was OK with me.

 

[Trackman]

What irks me is that nobody at Euston told me that the 2027 was going to be seriously delayed. They could have advised CRE passengers to catch the 2030 EUS-MAN which left just a couple of minutes late.
Had they done so, I would have made the 2229 CRE-CTR. In the end the 2027 left EUS at 2101 and arrived at CRE at 2300. So I would have ended up on the same 2307 CRE-CTR train and be stranded at CTR.

They might have done this not to confuse passengers, as you say the 20:27 did eventually set off, they might have not known when the train would depart.

Going back to the evening in question, did you ask for assistance at Chester?

 

[Old Yard Dog]

As Avanti's online delay repay system doesn't seem to cope with my situation, I submitted a claim by post using the form I downloaded. Let's see how they respond.

And no, I didn't seek assistance at Chester. I wasn't sure what the procedure would be or, indeed, whether there would actually be any staff around at that time of night. It seemed easier simply to phone the missus from Crewe and ask her to come and meet me.

 

[Watershed]

As Avanti's online delay repay system doesn't seem to cope with my situation, I submitted a claim by post using the form I downloaded. Let's see how they respond.

And no, I didn't seek assistance at Chester. I wasn't sure what the procedure would be or, indeed, whether there would actually be any staff around at that time of night. It seemed easier simply to phone the missus from Crewe and ask her to come and meet me.

I would be very surprised if there were no staff at all at a fairly major station like Chester. More to the point, the conductor on the inbound train could contact their Control to arrange onward travel. I can certainly understand why you chose to do it that way though.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

You're right in principle but I didn't see a conductor on either the 2039 Avanti EUS-CRE or the 2307 TfW CRE-CTR and there was no sign of staff at CTR at 2330 where the ticket gates were open. Not sure where I'd be meant to look for help at CTR. Maybe just take a taxi from the rank outside & claim back later?

 

[Bletchleyite]

You're right in principle but I didn't see a conductor on either the 2039 Avanti EUS-CRE or the 2307 TfW CRE-CTR and there was no sign of staff at CTR at 2330 where the ticket gates were open.

There will have been guards on both trains as neither is a DOO TOC. The platform before boarding would be a good time to see them and say you needed help, or the buffet steward on Avanti would probably be able to contact them.

Alternatively you could have spoken to staff at Euston.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

No time to talk to staff at Euston. When I dashed over to get the 2039 guessing the 2027 was going nowhere anytime soon, all the guy on the gate was interested in was marking my ticket to the extent that I almost missed the train. But he did at least tell me that it was going on time. Others waiting for the 2027 were just left in limbo with no information provided other than "Boarding shortly" on the screens.

I did talk to the chap in the buffet car on the 2039 but he didn't offer any assistance. To be honest, I'd already decided to call out the missus once I left EUS.

It hadn't been a good day. I'd be down to the millennium dome to see Cheshire Phoenix get hammered by London in the Basketball play-off final and would have caught the 1942 had it not been for problems on the Northern Line causing it to run extremely slowly. I wonder how many other Cheshire fans were similarly inconvenienced?

Ironically when I went down to Ellesmere Port ticket office a few days earlier to book my seat on the 2027, the system wanted to book me on the 2030. But I insisted on the 2027 as it looked a safer connection at Crewe. Teach me to be a smart ****. The 2030 ran on time!

 

[Watershed]

You're right in principle but I didn't see a conductor on either the 2039 Avanti EUS-CRE or the 2307 TfW CRE-CTR

It can help to take a bit of initiative in these kinds of situations. The Train Manager on an Avanti Pendolinos is normally in their office in coach C. If you weren't sure where they were, I'm sure any other member of staff (e.g. catering staff) could advise.

and there was no sign of staff at CTR at 2330 where the ticket gates were open. Not sure where I'd be meant to look for help at CTR.

Aren't there help points on the platform? Or dispatchers out and about?

Maybe just take a taxi from the rank outside & claim back later?

That would be the backup but I'd want to make at least some attempt to contact the TOC(s) in question to give them a chance to make arrangements for me.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

All fine in theory and if I'd been desperate for help with a taxi, I would have made the effort. Had I been stranded at Lime Street rather than Chester, which would have happened had I stayed on the 2039 beyond Crewe, I'd have tried harder to find somebody.

 

[redreni]

It hadn't been a good day. I'd be down to the millennium dome to see Cheshire Phoenix get hammered by London in the Basketball play-off final and would have caught the 1942 had it not been for problems on the Northern Line causing it to run extremely slowly. I wonder how many other Cheshire fans were similarly inconvenienced?

I'd have to have a sense of how many spectators go home and away to watch basketball in this country before I could even begin to speculate. I wasn't aware there were any! Fair play, though...

I wonder how TOCs calculate delays where the last train is missed? Whether the passenger asks for assistance and is put in a taxi, or whether they call their husband or wife to pick them up, the TOC isn't going to have a record of what time they arrived, nor even when they should theoretically have arrived given the missed connection. I guess they just have to believe the passenger, provided the time they give for when they arrived at their destination seems plausible. This is totally opposite to their usual modus operandi of completely ignoring what the customer is telling them, but it's hard to see how else they could do it.

 

[Trackman]

Maybe just take a taxi from the rank outside & claim back later?

In experience with others, this would be a bad move, chances of them coughing up are slim, however some TOCs have.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

I once took an Uber from Stafford to the Hawthorns one Sunday lunchtime when I was unexpectedly turfed out of my CRE-WVH train at STA for some unplanned reason or other. There was no time to mess about if I wanted to make the kick off. The plan had been to get the tram from WVH to the ground. I took the tram and a RRB from WVH-STA after the match. I think I just claimed compo for the theoretical (out) & real (ret) delays each way between STA & WVH which was a decent amount.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 May 2026 ==

Basketball fans don't usually travel away in great numbers, but play-off finals are different. There were 15,000+ at the dome on Sunday, several hundred of whom from Cheshire. We don't get many opportunities for sporting glory in Ellesmere Port where the Cheshire Phoenix play.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The saga continues. Having submitted my claim by downloading the Avanti delay repay claim form & sending it & my tickets by freepost, I heard nothing for ages (3 weeks). Eventually I phoned & got through to their complaint resolution team and was told I should have claimed via the ticket retailer - which in my case was Ellesmere Port ticket office. I told her it was nothing to do with Merseyrail or their small part time ticket office. Eventually she spoke to her supervisor & then agreed I'd done the right thing. I insisted that the call be recorded.

Then today I got an email saying my claim had been received on 17th June, four weeks after I posted it, and had been rejected as they couldn't find the timetabled journey for any of the legs of my claim. It looked computer generated ("computer says no"). But there was a link to an appeal form. But I couldn't fill this in as more than 28 days had elapsed since my journey (conveniently for them?).

So I phoned complaint resolution again and this time got a very helpful lady. We talked through my journey and she submitted an appeal on my behalf. I will keep you in touch with progress.

All I can say is it's a good job I'm a railway enthusiast with access to train time data from sites like realtimetrains and not a normal. Normals wouldn't have a hope of navigating this minefield.

 

[rmHawk765]

All I can say is it's a good job I'm a railway enthusiast with access to train time data from sites like realtimetrains and not a normal. Normals wouldn't have a hope of navigating this minefield.

These are the types of issues GBR should be fixing first thing. Not random largely unnecessary service increases for publicity...
It's not just us though, my experiences in France tell me it's not common for the folks on the continent to have a clue either about having a simple and reliable framework for reporting delays to passengers ASAP along with providing accurate information on repay and alternative services.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Good news - my appeal was dealt with quickly & successfully & I have been promised a National Rail Voucher for the full £75.85 return fare.

 

[Watershed]

Good news - my appeal was dealt with quickly & successfully & I have been promised a National Rail Voucher for the full £75.85 return fare.

It should be paid out in 'cash' (i.e. as a cheque or bank transfer) unless you specifically requested a voucher.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

There were problems with "cash" as the card registered to my Avanti account had had to be changed before its normal expiry date. My fault for not telling them.

So I set up NR vouchers as a fall back which I am quite happy with. I don't do electronic banking.