What rights do passengers have when trains are too full to board?

[ianBR]

On Sunday the 11.40 cross country Newcastle to Penzance arrived in Newcastle as only a 4 car train and already full.

A huge number of people (many with advance tickets) were then unable to board the train never mind get to their seats

What are passengers rights in this scenario?. The next cross country train would not be for an hour with no guarantee that would also not be in the same state.

The train eventually left 20 minutes late due to the carnage and it was amazing how many people were also discussing having to buy a new ticket for their missed connection in York when their existing ticket would be valid.

It’s quite clear the industry does a terrible job of making people aware of what their rights are during disruption. They should be printed forced to print a statement on passenger rights on every itinerary.

 

[trainophile]

Looks like it terminated at New Street anyway, and the next onward XC service at 16:12 was only going to Plymouth. After Plymouth there were only GWR trains to Penzance, and the earliest you could have arrived if that was your destination was 22:14, or an hour and a half after the original schedule. Therefore a full refund of your ticket price would be due whether or not you'd managed to squeeze onto it.

 

[Krokodil]

In essence it's the same as a delay, isn't it? So you could abandon your journey, return to your start point and claim a full refund. Or you could travel on the next available train by the same operator (or a different operator if you have flexible tickets or there is acceptance in place) and claim delay repay based on your actual arrival time compared with your original itinerary. If the delay is likely to be significant then you might be able to insist on road transport or even a hotel.

Whenever someone argues that the railway is not deserving of investment because revenue is down, I am reminded of cases like these where revenue is down (in this case flowing back out in compo) precisely because of lack of investment.

 

[ianBR]

Maybes if TOC’s also had to pay compensation any time their trains were short formed they’d put more effort into running a half decent service.

Cross country say they’ll give you “at least 5%” if your reserved seat is not available which is scandalous really - when the reality is the sort of journey making claims like these is for trains like this one on Sunday where the conditions were truly horrific and on a par with a rush hour tube train.

 

[mm333]

I tried to go from Wombwell to Leeds one Saturday afternoon. The train before I got to the station was cancelled and the first train north was full of Barnsley FC fans going to the match. I claimed Delay Repay and Northern turned that down, but they processed a refund even though I didn't buy the ticket from them.