Should have used the replacement bus

[Ben Rhydding]

This incident I witnessed about 12 months ago. Lest it be relevant, it was just before the TPE York to Castleford service began.

I was travelling from Saltburn to Leeds on the TPE which left York at 17.17. On departure from York, the guard came checking tickets. A gent a few seats away tendered the return portion of an off peak return from York to Pontefract Baghill. He explained that the 17.15, the last train of the day to Pontefract Baghill had been cancelled so he was having to go via Leeds.

Why, asked the guard, did you not take the replacement bus? The passenger didn`t think there was one. The guard asserted that there was, citing as evidence "they always put on a replacement bus when they cancel a train". The passenger, she said, should have asked station staff to direct him to the replacement bus. If, for some reason he had not wanted to use the transport so provided, he should have asked station staff to direct him to the next Northern train. But his Northern ticket was not valid on Trans Pennine.

As a matter of fact, the ticket was restricted "not via Leeds" but was not company specific.

There followed an amount of repetition about the blessings of the replacement bus and the consequences of boarding a train without a valid ticket. Eventually the guard said that "just this once" she would "exercise the discretion given to her" and allow him to travel to Leeds. But had there been "Revenue" on board he would have got a penalty fare. And he should count himself lucky as there had been "Revenue" on but they had got off at York. (Having travelled all the way from Saltburn, I don`t believe this was true).

She hadn`t yet finished. She warned him that the discretion she had just bestowed did not mean that he wouldn`t get a penalty fare on the train from Leeds. "That is a Northern train" said the passenger. "It doesn`t matter" replied the guard, "your ticket is not valid on it as you should have used the replacement bus"

Arrival at Pontefract Baghill should have been 17.47. By taking this TPE, the passenger will have reached Pontefract Monkhill at 18.30. By waiting for a Northern train from York to Leeds, he would arrive Monkhill at 19.05. By waiting for the next train to Baghill, he would arrive at 09.47 the next day. By waiting for the replacement bus, he`d still be in York now.

Can forum members suggest on how many counts this guard was in the wrong? Or, more difficult, can they find a single count on which she was right?

 

[yorkie]

When the last train of the day is cancelled, any company in a position to help must do so; clearly the passenger has to be allowed to travel via Leeds.

The guard should have accepted the ticket without fuss.

Northern replacement buses don't always exist and, where they do, can be extremely hard to find.

A group of us missed a bus because Northern provided conflicting information regarding the stop.

On another occasion I had to help confused passengers find a bus, which wouldn't accept all their accompanying items and wasn't going to the final destination due to an issue with the bus company.

If there is any doubt that a customer may or may not be able to take a bus, and a suitable train exists, then the passenger should be conveyed by train.

A penalty fare would be totally inappropriate; at worst it would be an excess to (half the) appropriate, lowest priced fare (including Railcard discounts) to enable travel via Leeds.

Threatening PFs where is it both not applicable (if there was no disruption) and, where disruption occurs, is completely unacceptable.

 

[185]

Bad as it sounds, I'd give credit to the guard for mentioning the risk of a penalty fare. Whilst it's basic common sense to accept a ticket via Leeds, we've seen some absolute shockers from TPE Revenue Protection Officers (remember on here... you must sleep in Leeds station and wait until we choose to run a train)... I can easily understand traincrew getting fed up of seeing the RPOs doing this. Besides, Northern and TPE are the same firm now - if this nonsense continues, they should just merge them and put an end to this.

 

[Ben Rhydding]

There was no replacement bus nor even any suggestion of one. The Northern website said take the next available train.

All the way from Saltburn, this guard had been behaving "over the top". "How are you today?" "What sort of day are you having?" When she came to check my ticket, I had difficulty, momentarily, getting it up on my phone. She said it didn`t matter as she knew I would have one. I volunteered it later and she said she didn`t need to see it.

It may be that, had the Pontefract passenger just tendered his ticket without comment, nothing would have been said. But, having been presented with a concept she didn`t understand, her reaction was to let the passenger and everyone else in earshot know just how knowledgeable and powerful (and ignorant) she really was.

To have drawn this guard`s attention to the NRCoT or other evidence could, I fear, have produced a very ugly scene.