ScotRail - Far North Line cancellation

[Segedunum]

Hi all,

I've just ended up in a bit of a predicament with ScotRail.

I was travelling from Kyle of Lochalsh to Wick - changing at Dingwall. The Wick train at 1438ish has been cancelled.

The advice was to catch the X99 which goes nowhere near Dingwall, so I asked the conductor on the Kyle train what to do. Advice from her control was to get off at Dingwall and plead ignorance as they'd "have to" arrange something for me.

Lo and behold, I made it to Dingwall, pressed the help point and was put through to control. I was originally told "tough" then to catch the 25A to Alness and change for the X99. After some fumbling around on my phone, I saw that the next 25A terminated in Alness itself while the X99 only stopped well outside of the village on the A9. The bloke on the help point was insistent I was wrong and that I didn't need to walk between stops.

I've checked again and it looked like that indeed, a much later bus connects with the last X99 at what is effectively a layby in the middle of nowhere. Call me difficult, but I wasn't up for hanging around in Dingwall for several hours or chancing getting stuck somewhere I can't get out of.

So I'm off on a bus to Inverness, having confirmed with my hotel that there'd definitely be someone to meet me at 11pm. All else failing, there is an X99 at 16:50. I just want to be a bit closer to civilisation as five hours in Dingwall wasn't an exciting prospect.

To be honest, I didn't expect an awful lot different as it'll be difficult part of the world to source things, but it was pretty frustrating as I'd have just stayed onto Inverness rather than put myself through that!

Is this typical for Far North Line cancellations, or have I been pretty unlucky (compounded by not starring my journey in Inverness)?

Edit- Credit where it's due to Inverness ticket office who've endorsed my Dingwall-Wick ticket for travel from Inverness to Dingwall and advised me to make a complaint as, difficulties with sourcing replacement transport aside, trying to send a non-local on a daft, unclear route then leaving them to it when they're not happy with that option isn't exactly great customer service.

 

[Surreytraveller]

When I go anywhere unfamiliar, I always familiarise myself with alternatives, download bus timetables etc. You cannot rely on someone else knowing what they're talking about when things go pear-shaped

 

[Kite159]

Probably would have been more sensible for ScotRail to suggest staying on the train from Kyle to Inverness itself, at least there are more options available from Inverness compared to Dingwall.

It's not that things go wrong, what counts is putting things right afterwards

 

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I've submitted a lengthy complaint to ScotRail so will see what they say. It really isn't the cancellation itself, but the fact I was sent on a silly wild goose chase then talked to like a misbehaving child when I said I wasn't comfortable with the option being suggested. (Being screamed at to download the Traveline app because Google Maps is 'wrong' isn't a great look).

The conductor on the later Wick train also said that I should have just been told to stay on for Inverness and she said that's what she always gets passengers to do if it looks like the connection between the two lines might be disrupted.

 

[Segedunum]

So, an update on this one...

I originally had a stock reply from ScotRail which answered precisely nothing and was clearly a quick attempt to resolve the ticket.

I replied and said that this wasn't really good enough, I'd like a human response and some kind of explanation. In the meantime, I also stuck in a Delay Repay claim.

I had a reply a couple of days ago with an offer of what appeared to be additional compensation (Delay Repay has also been approved) as it was to the value of only one ticket (I used two) plus the bus fare, plus some rounding. That's yet to appear in my account.

So that's positive, so long as it all lands in my account!

Sadly, the explanation was that it was their policy to send me to Alness on the 25A and then change, rather than provide any alternative transport. They also didn't address the part where I asked staff what to do and was encouraged to end up in this daft situation!

A positive outcome for me personally I suppose, but a word of warning for anyone planning to take a Far North Line service from an intermediate stop.