Most bus and coach drivers would help out another driver is possible, just to get passengers off the first drivers back, I once took half a dozen Eastern counties passengers when I was running National Express and dropped them off at their desired bus stops.
This is really not the norm nationwide in my experience.
Would any full fare paying South Eastern passenger actually complain if a Southern passenger was put on their train due to a cancellation? Only someone extraordinarily mean and petty, I suspect.
But would people from outside the area know that? Not to mention that you are operating with the benefit of hindsight.
You are correct with respect to the marginal cost. Of course had Southeastern allowed them to do so they would have made absolutely nothing from the journey.
But they would not have made anything anyway had the train not been cancelled.
They would have made nothing for providing nothing. You are asking them to make nothing for providing a service.
But the service would have run anyway. It was not put on specially for the affected passengers. I would argue, as above, that South Eastern have actually taken money that they would not have obtained had the Southern service not been cancelled.
The same logic could be used to justify fare dodging...
How?
It also assumes that another passenger would have a clue or care what the southern passenger has paid which of course is none of their business
But this is now an out of date attitude. Since covid all the fares money is going to HM Gov anyway - paper walls between TOCs are irrelevant now to anyone but internal 'bean counters' as some like to call them.
Your argument keeps shifting. Initially it was that there was no/low marginal cost to Southeastern. That is exactly what faredodgers say.
This isn't really true as each TOC is still being monitored and held responsible for the revenue it generates. However, that is not the crux of the matter in this case.
Except if fare dodgers could 'get away' with it, then a lot of people would do it and there would end up being a substantial cost. But I'd prefer to bring this to a conclusion now TBH as the discussion isn't really going anywhere and my argument is not 'shifting'. It's plain and simple, that IN THIS CASE, it would cost South Eastern nothing to convey the delayed passenger. Completely different to the case of a fare dodger; that is simply common sense.
I doubt a fare dodger is likely to be asked to return the favour next time by supplying a free service when the boot is on the other foot so I don't see the situations as remotely the same
What you identified is in no way bad customer service however, and you provided no supporting reasoning or evidence. I say that it's you bringing in a silly counter-argument for the sake of it, which you know is daft, to try to make it appear as though there are two sides to the story.
Unfortunately they paid very little money indeed for a heavily restricted ticket. This comes with risks which you have to accept. One of those is - what happens if my train is cancelled, or I'm late?
It's not though.
Moot.
I think it would perhaps be more accurate to say "we wonder why the industry is notorious for poor customer service".
They were already taking the bus from London to Birmingham. I don't see why the railway should just write off the restrictions they accepted on their £5 fare because they chose extreme thrift by using the railway's competitor from London to Birmingham, to be honest.
Not moot if you make the claim. Rail travel is very popular partly because you can still get £5 fares to London! But those do come with restrictions and people do need to take a modicum of responsibility for making plans which have no slack at all if one thing goes awry.
Likewise TfW will routinely help out, and be helped out by, Avanti, Crosscountry, WMR and GWR on common routes or diversionary routes. All it takes is a phone call between the control offices of the TOCs concerned.
The restriction, as far as most people are concerned, being that you have to take the booked train.
What has that got to do with anything? They may just as well be flying out to Spain.
If you happened to hold an Avanti Advance from Preston to London and were booked on a service via Birmingham that was cancelled, you would be allowed to travel on the next service - even if that means arriving slightly earlier than booked.
