Ticket acceptance / alternative travel arrangements during Buxton line disruption

[northwichcat]

Moderator note: split from

Storm Babet disruption - Saturday 21/10

Indeed, and this is part of the fragmentation brought on by privatisation. Introduced by the Government which now says the railways cost too much to run. Absolutely spot-on!

www.railforums.co.uk

can confirm the Buxton line is back up and running for anyone wanting to head down this way! A testament to the remarkable skills of NR in getting it back up and running in a matter of hours!

It seems the last train ran from Piccadilly to Buxton yesterday. Until then Northern were advising they'd only be able to source 2 x 16 seater minibuses to provide replacement transport and advised passengers to use the 199 bus, for which they'd need to buy an additional ticket.

 

[AlastairFraser]

It seems the last train ran from Piccadilly to Buxton yesterday. Until then Northern were advising they'd only be able to source 2 x 16 seater minibuses to provide replacement transport and advised passengers to use the 199 bus, for which they'd need to buy an additional ticket.

I know - they never seem to organise ticket acceptance with High Peak Buses when they could!

 

[175001]

The 199 is well loaded as it is without the extra railway footfall.

 

[dk1]

Greater Anglia is always good at getting acceptance with First X1/X11/X2//X22 for journeys between Norwich & Yarmouth/Lowestoft but tend to forget the villages of Brundall & Lingwood only served by the 15/15A route. Drivers on these buses do pass passengers most of the time and I find when in GA uniform they are always friendly and have never questioned me personally.

 

[northwichcat]

I know - they never seem to organise ticket acceptance with High Peak Buses when they could!

The 199 is well loaded as it is without the extra railway footfall.

A ticket acceptance arrangement with High Peak could also include the 58 Macclesfield to Buxton service. That would help spread passengers out both over train and bus services.

Saying that advertising alternatives, even when there's no ticket acceptance arrangements in place, can be useful for any passengers holding multi-modal tickets

 

[Starmill]

A ticket acceptance arrangement with High Peak could also include the 58 Macclesfield to Buxton service. That would help spread passengers out both over train and bus services.

Saying that advertising alternatives, even when there's no ticket acceptance arrangements in place, can be useful for any passengers holding multi-modal tickets

Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains actually pay for ticket acceptance with First Bus and NXWM respectively. Others may well do too. Northern don't, therefore it's not available.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains actually pay for ticket acceptance with First Bus and NXWM respectively. Others may well do too. Northern don't, therefore it's not available.

As bus fares are £2, basically all rail users bar those on seasons will be quids in if they claim a full refund for their abandoned rail journey and take the bus instead.

Even a single from Ormskirk to Aughton Park, about a mile and a half, is now £3.20. There must be hardly any adult rail fares under £2 now, if any at all.

And in an urban area they might well have a multimodal season anyway.

 

[Starmill]

As bus fares are £2, basically all rail users bar those on seasons will be quids in if they claim a full refund for their abandoned rail journey and take the bus instead.

Even a single from Ormskirk to Aughton Park, about a mile and a half, is now £3.20. There must be hardly any adult rail fares under £2 now, if any at all.

And in an urban area they might well have a multimodal season anyway.

Depends on a lot of factors though. If you'd used your outward portion of a return, your refund entitlement might be about 10p.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Depends on a lot of factors though. If you'd used your outward portion of a return, your refund entitlement might be about 10p.

Abandonment refund on one leg of a return is supposed to be 50%, though admittedly it may be hard to get that out of some retailers.

 

[northwichcat]

As bus fares are £2, basically all rail users bar those on seasons will be quids in if they claim a full refund for their abandoned rail journey and take the bus instead.

In the case of the 199 in lieu of the Buxton train, that might be the case. However, if something similar happens elsewhere on the Northern network that may not be the case. Even a short journey, such as Greenbank to Lostock Gralam, would require using two different buses if the train was unavailable and no replacement transport was organised. A return journey by bus may even cost £8 (4 x £2 singles) as the D&G £6 day ticket would only cover a small proportion of the services between Northwich town centre and Lostock Gralam - 3 to 5 per day.

 

[Starmill]

Abandonment refund on one leg of a return is supposed to be 50%, though admittedly it may be hard to get that out of some retailers.

There's a lack of anything documented for the customer to rely on, so if the retailer doesn't want to give it, what can be done?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Oct 2023 ==

In the case of the 199 in lieu of the Buxton train, that might be the case. However, if something similar happens elsewhere on the Northern network that may not be the case. Even a short journey, such as Greenbank to Lostock Gralam, would require using two different buses if the train was unavailable and no replacement transport was organised. A return journey by bus may even cost £8 (4 x £2 singles) as the D&G £6 day ticket would only cover a small proportion of the services between Northwich town centre and Lostock Gralam - 3 to 5 per day.

Even a relatively short journey like Disley to Manchester would require a change of bus and thus a second £2 single, or the train and the ticket could be part-used, lowering the entitlement to refund.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Oct 2023 ==

Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains actually pay for ticket acceptance with First Bus and NXWM respectively. Others may well do too. Northern don't, therefore it's not available.

Of course, Northern did used to offer ticket acceptance mutually with Arriva bus companies back when they were part of the Arriva group.

 

[AlastairFraser]

The 199 is well loaded as it is without the extra railway footfall.

Certainly, but it was the only thing running on Friday evening beyond New Mills!

A ticket acceptance arrangement with High Peak could also include the 58 Macclesfield to Buxton service. That would help spread passengers out both over train and bus services.

Saying that advertising alternatives, even when there's no ticket acceptance arrangements in place, can be useful for any passengers holding multi-modal tickets

Agreed on the 58.

Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains actually pay for ticket acceptance with First Bus and NXWM respectively. Others may well do too. Northern don't, therefore it's not available.

This is a shame and perhaps deserves a complaint to the OLR management, because Northern have wasted plenty of money on taxis for me getting me to Picc for a connection, for a staff-related cancellation, when it would be significantly cheaper to organise ticket acceptance.

As bus fares are £2, basically all rail users bar those on seasons will be quids in if they claim a full refund for their abandoned rail journey and take the bus instead.

Even a single from Ormskirk to Aughton Park, about a mile and a half, is now £3.20. There must be hardly any adult rail fares under £2 now, if any at all.

And in an urban area they might well have a multimodal season anyway.

Depends - if you've already purchased your Advances (a very high percentage of travel on a lot of Northern lines seems to be Advances), you can't refund them easily and then are out of pocket for extra fares for a while.

 

[Starmill]

Depends - if you've already purchased your Advances (a very high percentage of travel on a lot of Northern lines seems to be Advances), you can't refund them easily and then are out of pocket for extra fares for a while.

You can't refund them in one click with most retailers, but it's not usually that difficult to get a refund.

 

[AlastairFraser]

You can't refund them in one click with most retailers, but it's not usually that difficult to get a refund.

It isn't particularly difficult, but you're still out of pocket for some time, when all it would take is a phone call to the bus company to sort it.

 

[TUC]

Moderator note: split from

Storm Babet disruption - Saturday 21/10

Indeed, and this is part of the fragmentation brought on by privatisation. Introduced by the Government which now says the railways cost too much to run. Absolutely spot-on!

www.railforums.co.uk

It seems the last train ran from Piccadilly to Buxton yesterday. Until then Northern were advising they'd only be able to source 2 x 16 seater minibuses to provide replacement transport and advised passengers to use the 199 bus, for which they'd need to buy an additional ticket.

Once again, Northern comes across as the TOC which doesn't try very hard to do well.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Once again, Northern comes across as the TOC which doesn't try very hard to do well.

The problem is with their rail replacement contractor Arriva.
Some of the coordinators are experienced, but most of the people on the ground seem to be agency chucked on the street with a hi-viz and an app on their phone. They had no idea what to say when customers asked questions several times I experienced the Northern RRB set up.

First Travel Solutions, who Avanti use (due to their partial ownership by FG), have less issues.