Missing last connection

[ashworth]

Later this summer I am staying for a few days with friends in Lancashire and I notice that there are some very cheap AP tickets available most days from Preston to destinations in Scotland.
By cheap I am talking about only £15 single for an AP ticket to destinations such as Aberdeen or Aviemore (or even Inverness with a very early start!)
At £30 return I was thinking of doing at least one of these journeys as a day out.

However, for both of these trips it would mean relying on the last connection south from either Edinburgh or Glasgow on the return journey.
From Aberdeen it means arriving in Edinburgh at 1832 and the connection for Preston departs at 1852.
From Aviemore it means arriving in Glasgow Queen Street at 1809 and departing from Glasgow Central for Preston at 1840.

I know that both of these allow adequate time to get these connections and with a through AP ticket there should be no problem. However, what is the situation if there was a delay to the first part of my journey as both of these connections do not leave much time to allow for delays, especially when there is a need to change stations at Glasgow.
If I did miss my connection what would the staff at either Edinburgh or Glasgow stations be able to do for me? Would they really provide me with a taxi all the way to Preston? Surely it would be cheaper for them to provide me with overnight acomodation in Edinburgh or Glasgow!

 

[ChrisTheRef]

You'll have to travel as far south as possible, with them providing onward travel from that point, or overnight accommodation if you'd rather.

(eg: last train to Euston from Glasgow is 1840, but there's a Crewe train at 2010. Taxi from Crewe to London or hotel in Crewe)

 

[142094]

In my own experience, Scotrail are quite good when there are delays. I did an ALR in 2007, on the first day (and first train as well), there were delays on the ECML and I missed my connection in Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street and my onward connection to Mallaig. Scotrail ordered two taxis for me and a couple of others going to Fort William and Oban, as this was the second last train of the day I think. We managed to catch up with the train at Crianlarich, so got some of the trip. That was nearly 3 years ago so not sure if things have changed with them.

There have been a few threads debating what happens if you have two advance tickets for two TOCs, with some saying that the second ticket would be valid and some saying it wouldn't be. Hopefully you shouldn't have this problem in the first place.

 

[yorkie]

Would they really provide me with a taxi all the way to Preston? Surely it would be cheaper for them to provide me with overnight acomodation in Edinburgh or Glasgow!

It would be cheaper still for them to put you on the sleeper (seated most likely) if at all possible. Gets to Preston about 4am. If not, I'd expect to be put up for the night as a taxi would cost a fortune. That said, we once got a taxi where we'd have been happy to stay the night, and the taxi was £747 IIRC. Ridiculous waste of money. They could have had us on a train for over a third of the journey and got the most wasteful taxi ever. The rail industry must waste £millions each year on taxis.

 

[northwichcat]

I've heard of people missing the last train to Knutsford/Northwich from Manchester being put on a train to Warrington where a taxi has been arranged from there. I think the reason for this is because the taxi would remain in Cheshire and not do Greater Manchester to Cheshire as Greater Manchester taxis are know to charge very high amounts to people going out of Greater Manchester even for short journeys like Manchester Airport to Wilmslow.

 

[Username]

Ashworth,

for the service you mentioned from Aberdeen you can change at Haymarket as opposed to Waverley.
It's booked to arrive into (Haymarket) platform 1 at 18.20 and it's then a simple case of nipping up the stairs and over the walkway to platform 4 to catch the service at 18.57.
This extends the time you have to catch your connection and saves you going through any ticket gates.
Also, for that particular service the punctuality is usually quite good (pipe down at the back there). There's quite a bit of recovery time nowadays since the majority of Fife stations have been removed from the service and it runs non-stop from Leuchars.
It's actually not that unusual for it to have to sit and wait in Haymarket for a few minutes before its booked departure time. Even then it's given twelve minutes to run in to Waverley though it's a path commonly regulated for four, so sitting next to Princes Street Gardens for a few minutes and still arriving in on time is commonplace.

Of course, none of the above discounts the fact that it could all go spectacularly t*ts up on the day you're booked to travel. But in that case see the posts above which cover those eventualities quite succinctly. I just thought I'd point out the optional 37 minute connectional window at Haymarket. Y'know . . . just in case it made you feel better.

Plus there should be a 19.56 service from Waverley to Preston (Lancs) with a change at Carstairs - in the event of a delay I can't see why they wouldn't honour your ticket to get you to your destination.

As far as the proposed journey from Aviemore goes, it takes about 10 minutes to get across from Queen Street to Central on foot. But again, isn't there a later service at 20.10 from Central arriving in Preston (Lancs) at 22.37? I can't see why they wouldn't permit you to travel on that service either.

 

[tony_mac]

Plus there should be a 19.56 service from Waverley to Preston (Lancs) with a change at Carstairs - in the event of a delay I can't see why they wouldn't honour your ticket to get you to your destination.

As far as the proposed journey from Aviemore goes, it takes about 10 minutes to get across from Queen Street to Central on foot. But again, isn't there a later service at 20.10 from Central arriving in Preston (Lancs) at 22.37? I can't see why they wouldn't permit you to travel on that service either.

Not on Saturdays!

 

[Username]

Not on Saturdays!

Hmmmm, I guess then that out of the 'most days' that Ashworth says that these AP tickets are available it might be an option to avoid Saturdays.

 

[ashworth]

Yes it was mainly Saturday times that I was quoting. This was mainly because there seemed to be more cheapr AP tickets available for Saturdays, especially for the outward journey at what would be peak times midweek, without booking quite so far in advance. I am thinking of early August and so I will look at midweek prices as soon as they become available in the next few weeks.