Took alternative route on an advance ticket: Did I do the right thing?

[williamn]

Travelling today from Lewes to Birmingham, changing at Clapham Junction and Watford Junction on a Lewes-Birmingham advance ticket. The train from Clapham to Watford was, of course, cancelled. Taking that route on a later service would have meant a long wait at Clapham Junction or Watford and an arrival an hour late, so I travelled into central London to pick up the original train from Euston instead. There was a little back and forth with gateline staff but they let me on, though said I should have gone to the ticket office really.

Did I do the right thing? I ended up on the same train I would have been on, but it's a slightly different route.

 

[trainophile]

Theoretically no, with an Advance ticket, but if you had permission from the staff I guess that was okay.

 

[jfollows]

If you have an advance ticket, this specifies the train(s) you should use. You are entitled to use earlier or later trains in the case of disruption, from the same train operator, along the same route.
Unilaterally deciding to go via a different route is not valid, worst case you could be reported for travelling without a valid ticket.
You weren’t so unlucky, so that’s good news, but - no - you weren’t “right” to do what you did.

 

[williamn]

Interesting, thanks! Of course if I had done the correct thing I would have been an hour late and would have claimed the entire trip back! As it was getting there on time was more important to me.

 

[njr001]

Presumably taking Mildmay & Lioness lines changing at Willesden Junction would have been valid but you would probably miss your booked train at Watford Junction

 

[williamn]

Presumably taking Mildmay & Lioness lines changing at Willesden Junction would have been valid but you would probably miss your booked train at Watford Junction

Yes I looked at that but I would have missed my booked train train.

 

[redreni]

There can't be many industries that would, having inconvenienced somebody slightly by not delivering something quite the way they were supposed to, choose to then inconvenience them seriously and end up having to refund them in full.

If you book a Compact car with Hertz and then when you turn up, they've only got Intermediates, they don't say "sorry mate, you've only paid for a Compact, so even though we've messed up and we have plenty of Intermediates available, you have to wait however long it takes for a Compact to become available."

Admittedly in that case you're only dealing with Hertz whereas in this case I suppose Avanti staff would be annoyed at having to bail out GTR, who have received the fare revenue for the journey up to Watford.

 

[MrJeeves]

If you have an advance ticket, this specifies the train(s) you should use. You are entitled to use earlier or later trains in the case of disruption, from the same train operator, along the same route.
Unilaterally deciding to go via a different route is not valid, worst case you could be reported for travelling without a valid ticket.

To be fair to OP, the ticket would have presumably been + AP RUGBY (which would get printed on the CCST stock as "+ On specified trains & connections only").

I'd say it's perfectly legitimate to, when faced with such a cancellation, reroute via London as the ticket itself would both bear the cross-London marker, and doing so would still comply with the (undisclosed to the passenger at all stages of purchase) route restriction for the ticket. The Advance wouldn't even have a TOC restriction printed on it.

Just like if someone's train is cancelled with splits, they would normally be permitted to take the next service even if that doesn't call at the same split points, I don't see an issue with this. I think I would have done the same.

 

[Watershed]

To be fair to OP, the ticket would have presumably been + AP RUGBY (which would get printed on the CCST stock as "+ On specified trains & connections only").

I'd say it's perfectly legitimate to, when faced with such a cancellation, reroute via London as the ticket itself would both bear the cross-London marker, and doing so would still comply with the (undisclosed to the passenger at all stages of purchase) route restriction for the ticket. The Advance wouldn't even have a TOC restriction printed on it.

Agreed. It's bonkers that some people in the rail industry would prefer to delay people, this incurring reputational damage as well as the cost of Delay Repay, than to accommodate them on another route with the same companies.

This is yet another example - as if more were needed - of the fundamental problems with the attitudes held (and tolerated) in the rail industry. It's not even about revenue distribution in this case, and yet customers are still being inconvenienced just because of the insistence on following anti-customer interpretations of rules.