Obligations of a TOC when last train is missed?

[rdwarr]

I was just having a look at Twitter and a thread there left me wondering what the actual obligations of a TOC are to ensure a passenger can complete their journey.
Passenger was travelling Hertford North to Lincoln leaving at 21:05 to connect with the 21:56 Stevenage to Newark. Train was cancelled with the next one at 23:05 which was obviously no use.
The advice from the Twitter team was to catch a local bus from Hertford to Stevenage, even though the last one was at 17:53.
In this case does the passenger have any right to insist on a taxi to Stevenage or do they simply have to abandon their journey?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I was just having a look at Twitter and a thread there left me wondering what the actual obligations of a TOC are to ensure a passenger can complete their journey.
Passenger was travelling Hertford North to Lincoln leaving at 21:05 to connect with the 21:56 Stevenage to Newark. Train was cancelled with the next one at 23:05 which was obviously no use.
The advice from the Twitter team was to catch a local bus from Hertford to Stevenage, even though the last one was at 17:53.
In this case does the passenger have any right to insist on a taxi to Stevenage or do they simply have to abandon their journey?

They have the right to take the 23:05 and claim delay compensation. If they decide to abandon their journey then they can get a full fee-free refund, regardless of the ticket type or retailer used. If there was no more train service - e.g. the 23:05 was cancelled as well - that's when there would be an entitlement to a taxi or overnight accomodation at the TOC's expense.

 

[rdwarr]

Thanks for the prompt reply. Although the 21:05 was not the last train from Hertford to Stevenage it was the last one that would get the passenger to Lincoln the same day as per booked itenerary. Catchign the 23:05 would just leave them stranded in Stevenage overnight. Presumably tickets are valid the next day in this case.

 

[Qwerty133]

The railway would need to provide alternative transport from Stevenage or pay for a hotel in that case.

 

[yorkie]

Either a taxi from the furthest point the passenger can get (or possibly from before that point, if it's a more major and/or convenient station) or overnight accommodation at a suitable place, from where the journey could be resumed the next day.

Either way, delay compensation would additionally apply if the delay was of a qualifying length, which it sounds like it would be!

 

[185143]

I had a similar situation to this back in January. My train to Glasgow was cancelled, which would have made me miss the last Anglo-Scottish Pendo of the night.

I used the help point, explained the issue to ScotRail who booked me a taxi to take me to Glasgow-where I caught my train with no trouble at all.

Had I waited where I was and caught the next service, I'd have missed the pendo and either had a 200+ mile taxi ride on a bank holiday night (ouch to the ching on that!) Or a hotel room for the night.