Missed Rail Replacement Birmingham New Street

[baz2277]

Hi all

I was in Birmingham last night, and checking on live departure boards that the 2209 XC to Nottingham was running (we wanted to get back to Burton) - all showed as fine, so we got to New Street to find the board showing BUS to Derby. I asked the gateline staff where to get the bus from and they pointed to the stands outside near the entrance to the bullring. We walked over (at 2155) and waited, and waited. Plenty of buses came past (in both directions) but none showing Rail Replacement. There were no staff to ask at the stops, and no-one appeared to be waiting for this bus. We waited until 2220 and went back into the station, ended up having to get the 2309 train instead.

Is there any way we can claim for having to wait the extra hour - we missed the last bus home from Burton by this point as well and ended up in taxis from Burton.

Where are the Rail Replacement Buses supposed to stop at New Street? Were we wrongly directed? The only other exits lead out to the trams so it couldn't have been from there?

Any advice gratefully received

Cheers

 

[pwharley]

Where are the Rail Replacement Buses supposed to stop at New Street? Were we wrongly directed? The only other exits lead out to the trams so it couldn't have been from there?

Any advice gratefully received

Adjacent to the TK Maxx store, according to this map from NRE.

 

[baz2277]

Ah yes, i've just found this too on the NR site, I can confirm there were no buses for this service last night!

 

[Starmill]

You're entitled to claim compensation for the delay under delay repay if you'd like to. I'd say you're entitled to claim for consequential losses instead if you like, this could include a value for your time and also the loss you suffered in taxi fares. I would also lodge a complaint about the lack of a bus, explaining everything you've explained here: https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/customer-service/contact-us/general-enquiries

 

[Cuthbert]

When a bus replacement is needed at Birmingham New Street the location is just around the corner of TK Max as you leave the main station. There should be Replacement Bus coordinators normally 2.

They do not have Hi-Vis on like our colleagues have to when dealing with rail replacement at our stations. They will also not ask if you need the replacement bus as the normal local busses depart from there.

When there is disruptions at Birmingham New Street certain ToCs vanish, the ToC I work for sends my team to help out. They also request volunteers from management pay grade to help out as well. So trying to find the replacement bus to Nottingham (via burton) might be difficult.

One shift pretty much all lines out of BHM were blocked due to bad weather. Me and a Colleague were surrounded by 20+ passengers demanding to know how they can get to there locations (non of the passengers were for our services). We tried to help but as it was not our ToC we did not have the info. We tried to contact the ToC involved and they just did not respond. It was that bad when the ToCs drivers came up to us and asked us how are they going to get home. When I said "Is it not best to contact your control" they replied "We did no one is answering"


So I fully understand your frustrations. Network Rail can only tell you what they know. When the other ToCs don't bother telling their own drivers info telling Network Rail is very low on the list.

I apologies you were not informed correctly.
The only reason I can think of is that they resolved the issue and cancelled the busses at that time as they knew a service would be travelling. I know this does not help you. This is just my experience at BHM as it i my base.

 

[rocrat]

When a bus replacement is needed at Birmingham New Street the location is just around the corner of TK Max as you leave the main station. There should be Replacement Bus coordinators normally 2.

They do not have Hi-Vis on like our colleagues have to when dealing with rail replacement at our stations. They will also not ask if you need the replacement bus as the normal local busses depart from there.

When there is disruptions at Birmingham New Street certain ToCs vanish, the ToC I work for sends my team to help out. They also request volunteers from management pay grade to help out as well. So trying to find the replacement bus to Nottingham (via burton) might be difficult.

One shift pretty much all lines out of BHM were blocked due to bad weather. Me and a Colleague were surrounded by 20+ passengers demanding to know how they can get to there locations (non of the passengers were for our services). We tried to help but as it was not our ToC we did not have the info. We tried to contact the ToC involved and they just did not respond. It was that bad when the ToCs drivers came up to us and asked us how are they going to get home. When I said "Is it not best to contact your control" they replied "We did no one is answering"


So I fully understand your frustrations. Network Rail can only tell you what they know. When the other ToCs don't bother telling their own drivers info telling Network Rail is very low on the list.

I apologies you were not informed correctly.
The only reason I can think of is that they resolved the issue and cancelled the busses at that time as they knew a service would be travelling. I know this does not help you. This is just my experience at BHM as it i my base.

THIS 100%
AWC tend to have a lot of support available when **** hits the fan at BHM, but XC/WMT never seem to be around *at all*

 

[baz2277]

Well that was a waste of my time! Tried completing the page where you can make a comment re compensation, wrote exactly what happened, pressed submit and then the page promptly crashed and now will not reload. So then tried the 'delay repay' page - I don't have the booking number as we used a machine at Burton and didn't keep the receipt bit - I have the two return portions but the numbers won't work within the page. Also it doesn't give me an option to make any comments as to what happened. Bloody useless.

 

[TheTallOne]

Well that was a waste of my time! Tried completing the page where you can make a comment re compensation, wrote exactly what happened, pressed submit and then the page promptly crashed and now will not reload. So then tried the 'delay repay' page - I don't have the booking number as we used a machine at Burton and didn't keep the receipt bit - I have the two return portions but the numbers won't work within the page. Also it doesn't give me an option to make any comments as to what happened. Bloody useless.

Email the details to customer services instead. Given it is a complicated scenario, probably the best way.