Virgin Trains West Coast - a more holistic approach

[Bletchleyite]

Indeed. I think Neil Williams' proposal instead concerned delays to the booked train - an unrelated scenario

Yes, my scenario related to a situation where the booked train was *already* known to be delayed such that making the booked connection may be difficult. I misunderstood that this wasn't the case here.

TBH, I think 11 minutes minimum connection to the Low Level platforms at Lime St is tight. Maybe it should change officially to 15 minutes.

 

[Hadders]

lol in this instance I was trying to help the railway. The 1707 might have resulted in an earlier arrival home but would have guaranteed connection. I have paid £140 for a ticket and was willing to pay an admin fee for a change. By asking for an additional £100 it was a no brainer to stay on the booked train. Yes it was only 7 minutes late but I had an 11 minute connection. In those 4 minutes, I was expected to collect luggage, walk 10 coaches, and transfer to Merseyrail. I actually cleared Platform 7 at 2003 the time of my connection departure. The West Kirby line switches to an half hourly service at 1933 - so arrival was then 30 minutes late.

I don't make the rules but know I am entitled to claim - the main point of this is I offered to help VT get me home on time.

For the record, on checking the 1707 it arrived 3 minutes late as well. That delay would result in a mad rush to catch the 1933 service to West Kirby so if I had been on that train the chances are that I would have only caught my original connection at 2003 and this by paying an extra £10 to do so!

I understand your dissatisfaction but where do you draw the line? What if I had a 15 minute connection (many would consider that tight). Should I be allowed to catch an earlier train if my meeting finished early to have a better chance of making it?

Yes, my scenario related to a situation where the booked train was *already* known to be delayed such that making the booked connection may be difficult. I misunderstood that this wasn't the case here.

I agree that if the booked train is known to be running late then flexibility should be shown.

 

[joke2711]

A further update on this ...

I submitted a delay repay claim for £72, half of the £144 and received quite quickly a RTV for £50. I have reported back to Virgin that this is incorrect and they are yet to respond.

At the same time I emailed Customer Services to make them aware of what happened and how it has cost them money by this stance. Today I received a reply back thanking for my comments and they will pass my comments onto a Customer Experience Manager ... they have also enclosed £50 of RTV's for my inconvenience.

So at the moment, I have refused to pay the £100 charge and they have already refunded me £100 in RTV's - makes more sense by the minute