TOCs asked to accept Flybe passengers

[RailAleFan]

NRE acceptance info page...

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/244244.aspx

 

[VT 390]

XC are taking Passengers until Sunday.

Out of all the TOC's surely XC should not be carrying extra passengers for free as they can hardly deal with their own passengers most of the time with the short trains they operate. At least other TOC's such as Avanti usually have a bit more spare capacity especially off peak.

 

[dk1]

Nice to see that Eurostar are now offering what is equivalent to a 'Priv' fare for anyone caught up in this too. It's £29.50 which is roughly the fee that has to be paid per passenger to transit the Channel Tunnel & the reason Rail staff never had it completely free.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Interestingly all TOCs seem to have agreed Wednesday 11th as a deadline for this. Why can't they work together like this when the problem is on the rails, I wonder?

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Ticket acceptance is nothing new. We had ticket acceptance when Thomas Cook folded and prior to that when Monarch met its demise. both monarch and TC staff gained free travel for a while afterwards while they were repatriated and while they were Looking for new jobs.

 

[VT 390]

Is there a reason why train companies will accept Plane tickets when there is an issue but often won't accept other train companies tickets when there are cancellations or major issues?

 

[dk1]

Is there a reason why train companies will accept Plane tickets when there is an issue but often won't accept other train companies tickets when there are cancellations or major issues?

It's normal practice for train operators to accept each others tickets during disruption and happens on a regular basis. It's only Hull Trains and Grand Central tickets that have been refused more often.

 

[bb21]

Can we please bear in mind requirements in Post 1 and keep discussions about anything other than ticket acceptance by train operators in the original Flybe Collapses thread please.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/flybe-collapses.201521

I appreciate that threads drift however this thread is being cluttered up and it is making things very difficult for people purely looking for advice. Thank you.

 

[Farang]

We had Flybe tickets from Edinburgh to London for March 5th. I bought LNER tickets on the evening of the 4th before ticket acceptance was in place. I've just got off the phone to LNER and they tell me so long as I can send them proof of both sets of tickets (no problem) then they'll refund me. Result!

 

[Tetchytyke]

The Euston barrier staff are out of control, aren't they? Why can't the TOC get control of them, or if they continue with their usual misconduct get rid of the problem ones?

Meanwhile, that's a TOC just thrown away the opportunity to get the business from the airlines.

Lack of desire, mainly. Why bother fighting the unions when it doesn't affect the bottom line? The unions are why railway staff can, and do, get away with behaviour that would otherwise result in a P45 in any other industry.

And yes, what a first impression to give a passenger, laughing at them or charging them again when you've promised not to. Undoes all the good PR work in one fell swoop. Madness.

 

[Bletchleyite]

And yes, what a first impression to give a passenger, laughing at them or charging them again when you've promised not to. Undoes all the good PR work in one fell swoop. Madness.

Quite. Even if the passenger was a fare dodger obviously trying it on e.g. with an obviously forged ticket, the correct approach is to be professional and polite while writing up the PF or MG11 or calling the BTP over or whatever.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Is there a reason why train companies will accept Plane tickets when there is an issue but often won't accept other train companies tickets when there are cancellations or major issues?

"An issue" - for Flybe, the issue is the complete termination of the company. There's no way you can just wait a day or two for the problems to get cleared up. Until another company takes on the route, there will be no replacement flights.

On the railways, the state makes it impossible for franchised operations to fail completely. Even when the company contracted to operate the service fails, the state steps in to keep everything moving. The same trains, drivers, tickets and timetables apply the day before and the day after a TOC collapse. This just isn't possible in aviation right now. The government is proposing to change the rules so that the government can take over a collapsed airline's fleet for repatriation flights but even then that's just for repatriation purposes and not to run a revenue service.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The government is proposing to change the rules so that the government can take over a collapsed airline's fleet for repatriation flights but even then that's just for repatriation purposes and not to run a revenue service.

Part of that will be because the railways - most notably the local ones like Northern - are used for necessary travel, whereas much air travel is discretionary or in the case of domestic travel could be completed (with a bit of inconvenience) by rail or road instead.

 

[Wolfie]

The Euston barrier staff are out of control, aren't they? Why can't the TOC get control of them, or if they continue with their usual misconduct get rid of the problem ones?

Meanwhile, that's a TOC just thrown away the opportunity to get the business from the airlines.

Frankly, having encountered on a couple of occasions truly obnoxious (and completely wrong as the company admitted) then-Virgin employees at Euston my view is that a widescale cull would be completely beneficial.