XC delayed trains

[taxidave]

Yesterday evening I was on the 20.17 XC service from Wolverhampton to Cheltenham, when we arrived at New Street, for a 20.42 departure, the guard was warning passengers who were getting on that if they had advance tickets for the 19.12 and 20.12 services from New St their tickets were not valid on this train and they would be charged the full fare to Cheltenham.
When I arrived at Cheltenham I looked at the departure board and the 19.52 to Plymouth, ex 19.12 New Street showed as cancelled and the 20.52, ex 20.12 from New St was running over an hour late.
Was the guard right to refuse to allow these passenger on his train.
I have to say it did not effect me in any way, I am just curious as I was the only person in coach F.

 

[MikeWh]

It would be interesting to hear what XC management had to say about that. Presumably the guard had received instructions from somewhere about the situation otherwise he surely wouldn't have mentioned those two trains specifically. The one which was cancelled surely should have been ok if yours was the next available train. It certainly doesn't seem to make sense. I guess you could contact XC on the premise of wanting to know what would happen if your train was cancelled in the future.

 

[rail-britain]

Providing those services were still running and were late, then yes the member of staff is correct
However, the passengers can take their tickets for permission to travel on other services in exceptional circumstances; clearly this had not yet been approved

 

[Failed Unit]

Odd point of view however, as you could end up paying compensation for a late arrival. I once had it the other way once. GNER let me on a earlier train because mine was running late. Win - win I get home on time and they didn't need to pay out compensation for a late arrival. Hasten to add the train I was passed on wasn't that full it may be a different story if it was.

 

[John @ home]

When I arrived at Cheltenham I looked at the departure board and the 19.52 to Plymouth, ex 19.12 New Street showed as cancelled and the 20.52, ex 20.12 from New St was running over an hour late.

There is no doubt that the conditions of Advance tickets give the passenger the right to travel on an alternative service if their booked train is cancelled or delayed by 60 minutes. But the question is whether this was so at the time of the announcement. What was said may have been true at the time it was said.

 

[cuccir]

There is no doubt that the conditions of Advance tickets give the passenger the right to travel on an alternative service if their booked train is cancelled or delayed by 60 minutes. But the question is whether this was so at the time of the announcement. What was said may have been true at the time it was said.

But for the 20:47 departure that the OP was on, then this must have been true for the 19:12. There might possibly had been another available departure prior to the 20:47? The T&Cs do state the next available train, not any later one. However if one hadn't been available, then the guard was definitely wrong for the 19:12 passengers, and anyway this would be a very harsh interpretation of the T&Cs, particularly if there are multiple late/cancelled trains and pax awareness of which is the next available train might not always be clear.

The 20:12 is a little more grey - the T&Cs don't differentiate with a train that is scheduled to be over an hour late and one which is definitely over an hour behind, though if a train was running significantly more than 60 minutes behind you'd expect guards to allow this; perhaps when the 20:42 left Birmingham New Street it wasn't yet confirmed as being delayed by an hour, as John says?

 

[John @ home]

But for the 20:47 departure that the OP was on, then this must have been true for the 19:12.

I agree that by the OP's departure at 2042 (not 2047) the 1912 had been cancelled or was over 60 minutes late.

The T&Cs do state the next available train, not any later one.

My interpretation is that this means the next train available for the passenger. We have had no reports here of any other interpretation being claimed.

 

[tony_mac]

that's only if delays occur when travelling; if the journey origin was New St, then the conditions only say
'special arrangements will be made to accommodate you on another train '

It is one way to deal with overcrowding; don't let anyone on the train, and make sure that they don't travel by train in future.

 

[newmilton]

On the Sunday during the recent snow disruption our daughter was booked (with an advance ticket) to travel on the 20.02 XC from Burton to Gloucester; not only was it cancelled - from Newcastle - so was the next train, which meant there was no way she could get home that evening. The "next available train" would presumably have been around 6.30 the next morning, but we decided to wait till after the morning peak and she went at 10.49.

We did clear this with the staff at Burton, who endorsed the ticket "please pass today"; but since Burton is (bizarrely) an EMT station, I did wonder if there might still be trouble on the train (as happened to me once), but in the event there wasn't. But what is the situation when you cannot complete your journey on the day your ticket is for? Is "next available train" enforced even if that means some ungodly hour in the morning?

A further question also occurs to me: she was booked on a through service because she had quite a bit of luggage. Does "next available train" mean the next through service or, given that there are more options changing at BHM, does it mean "the next train that will allow you to complete your journey even if you have to change"?