Urgent question re. ATW strike on 27th Feb

[trainophile]

I have Advance tickets Southport to Hereford on the strike date (only just found out about strike) and was booked to travel via Manchester Piccadilly, catching an ATW from there to Hereford. I see no alternative arrangements are being made i.e. bus replacements.

I see I could make a much longer journey via Birmingham New Street, using other operators (XC & LM), but would I be allowed to use my ATW tickets to travel via these other operators?

Need urgent advice as may have to cancel weekend plans completely. TIA.

Incidentally Eastcoast (and presumably other booking sites) are still offering ATW services, despite the ATW website confirming that the strike is definitely going ahead, and also on Monday 28th).

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Good grief, 60 views and no-one knows? I'll have to email ATW I guess.

 

[yorkie]

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/sa0d11e6076d4cf6a1f07e0a5ff3d288/details.html

"Details of any refund arrangements, or ticket acceptance arrangements with other train operating companies have not yet been confirmed. Please check back closer to the time for travel."

 

[DJ737]

G'day

From the ATW website :

I have already booked a ticket – can I change my travel plans?
If you have already booked travel on the affected date on one of the affected routes, you will be able to travel between 25th February and 2nd March 2011. You do not require to exchange the tickets for new tickets.

You can travel out earlier and return on at later date with no penalty.
I assume you can use any train with an advance ticket to get to / from your intended destination.

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne Australia, but currently in Elsenham with jetlag. :roll:

 

[trainophile]

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/sa0d11e6076d4cf6a1f07e0a5ff3d288/details.html

"Details of any refund arrangements, or ticket acceptance arrangements with other train operating companies have not yet been confirmed. Please check back closer to the time for travel."

How much closer do they expect us to get? Some of us need to know whether to set out on Friday morning in order to come back on Sunday. No point them deciding on Saturday! Not really good enough is it?

Thanks for the replies anyway guys.
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G'day

From the ATW website :


You can travel out earlier and return on at later date with no penalty.
I assume you can use any train with an advance ticket to get to / from your intended destination.

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne Australia, but currently in Elsenham with jetlag. :roll:

We're only going for two nights so hardly worth it if have to shorten the schedule by a day. Can't return Tues due to work commitments. Ironically Monday morning would have been okay but no ATW running then either :roll:.

I assume you can use any [ARRIVA?] train with an advance ticket to get to / from your intended destination.

This is the crux of the matter!

 

[island]

Normally they say that tickets are valid by any reasonable route on strike days.

 

[trainophile]

Thanks Island. Just have to hope that is the case then.

Was thinking that if we do decide to return on Saturday 26th instead, as the first part of the journey is on Northern Rail and our tickets say 27th, would that in itself present a problem? NR aren't on strike so could insist we can only use those tickets on the date stated.

 

[island]

Suggest you phone up Northern Rail in advance about that

 

[34D]

Thanks Island. Just have to hope that is the case then.

Was thinking that if we do decide to return on Saturday 26th instead, as the first part of the journey is on Northern Rail and our tickets say 27th, would that in itself present a problem? NR aren't on strike so could insist we can only use those tickets on the date stated.

No, you'll have to sleep at Manchester piccadilly. Joking! The quote earlier was:

"If you have already booked travel on the affected date on one of the affected routes, you will be able to travel between 25th February and 2nd March 2011. You do not require to exchange the tickets for new tickets. "

That includes the arriva service and connections.

My guess (and its only a guess) is that you'll be fine to travel on other operators via Birmingham.

 

[trainophile]

Thanks again folks. Just to give closure to this thread, I went to Southport station to enquire but they didn't know. Then I emailed NR and got a vague reply to the effect that "our trains do not have controlled capacity so you can travel on any of them" - yeah, even with a differently dated ticket? At that point I gave up.

We have cancelled our plans. Husband will stay in Hereford and I will stay in Southport and we'll try again next weekend! Hoping we can get refunds for the aborted non-strike day tickets as well, as these have been rendered useless due to the overall plan being unworkable as a direct result of the strike action.

No need to read this bit, but in case anyone is confused, I'm already in Southport. Husband was coming up today and we were going back to Hereford together on Sunday 27th, then I was coming back up alone on Tues 1st March. Trying to sort out a (possibly final) visit to see his mother-in-law while she is still in this world . He's very fond of her, so it's not as if he's grateful for the avoidance opportunity!

Anyway this means that we have one HFD-SOP ticket for today, two SOP-HFD tickets for Sunday, and one HFD-SOP ticket for Tues to request refunds for. Wish me luck explaining!

Apologies for the long post. I hate reading posts with loose ends.