MSE News: Rail strike: your rights if your train is cancelled

Former_MSE_Natasha

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

Read the full story:

Rail strike: your rights if your train is cancelled

Bogof_Babe

It's a fat lot of good saying you can use your ticket the next day. If you have a ticket for 6th you might have to wait until 10th. No good if you're only going for a couple of days.

Rolandtheroadie

I would just like to thank Natasha for doing the research Sky and the BBC chose not to do and has mentioned the REAL reasons for the strikes.

Chunkypar

The issue that my wife and I have is that we were booked to go down to London on 6th April and have a hotel booked therefore canceling is not really an option.
Given that Eastcoast rail are not going to publish a revised timetable until Wed 31st at the earliest it makes it completely unfeasible to wait until then to book plane tickets given that the prices will have spiraled uncontrollably.

So I have been forced to 'gamble' on buying the plane tickets just now at a 'reasonable' but still more expensive price than the train. If the strike goes ahead I'll get a refund, but given that there's a chance the strike will not go ahead I then lose out on c£85.

Yet again the innocent customer is punished.

Bogof_Babe

Chunkypar wrote: »

The issue that my wife and I have is that we were booked to go down to London on 6th April and have a hotel booked therefore canceling is not really an option.
Given that Eastcoast rail are not going to publish a revised timetable until Wed 31st at the earliest it makes it completely unfeasible to wait until then to book plane tickets given that the prices will have spiraled uncontrollably.

So I have been forced to 'gamble' on buying the plane tickets just now at a 'reasonable' but still more expensive price than the train. If the strike goes ahead I'll get a refund, but given that there's a chance the strike will not go ahead I then lose out on c£85.

Yet again the innocent customer is punished.

I agree. That's the point they seem to be missing, i.e. people have to make arrangements NOW, not wait until they finish shilly-shallying around and make an official decision. I think that they should be morally obliged to refund tickets for 6th-9th now, whether or not they actually do strike, as many people will be in a similar position to yourself and to a certain extent myself, although I only stand to lose £12 for my 6th ticket, as I have managed to book another £12 ticket for 5th. It's still a matter of principle though.

It's worse having rail strikes than air strikes really, as with air you can always book with a different airline and probably go from the same airport, but with rail travel you are stuffed if they don't run. We live 50 miles from the nearest airport so it wouldn't be an option to travel by air.

Pinklepurr

Chunkypar wrote: »

The issue that my wife and I have is that we were booked to go down to London on 6th April and have a hotel booked therefore canceling is not really an option.
Given that Eastcoast rail are not going to publish a revised timetable until Wed 31st at the earliest it makes it completely unfeasible to wait until then to book plane tickets given that the prices will have spiraled uncontrollably.

So I have been forced to 'gamble' on buying the plane tickets just now at a 'reasonable' but still more expensive price than the train. If the strike goes ahead I'll get a refund, but given that there's a chance the strike will not go ahead I then lose out on c£85.

Yet again the innocent customer is punished.

We are in a similar position with East Coast Trains. We are booked from Peterborough to Edinburgh on 6 Apr, returning on 9 Apr. We have a (non refundable) hotel booked in Edinburgh. We are currently in limbo....on the one hand we still want to go, but if they give us an alternative train, will be have reserved seats? If so, what guarantee is there that we will actually get to use them? I have images of the trains that they do manage to run being so crowded that we will be hard pushed to get a seat. Travelling is going to be a nightmare, especially as we have two children with us.

We have gambled on booking a hotel break in another part of the country (booked a flexible, fully refundable rate) as our plan B. We have travel insurance and plan on making a claim for the Edinburgh hotel.

Once again, the customer pays the price!

TR14

I am travelling to Derbyshire from Cornwall on Tues 6th and returning on Fri 9th (how is that for bad planning!) as a chaperone to 4 disadvantaged young people who are guests on an adventure training/team building break in the Peaks.
The rail tickets have cost the Charity I work for £687 (using student rail cards) and I have been told that I will be charged a £10 cancellation fee per ticket even though I paid by credit/debit card.
In order to make our connections our journey commences before 10am and our arrival time is after 6pm so we are slammed even if the trains run to schedule during the day!
Has anyone any suggestions on how I might get the cancellation fee waived?
Many thanks, Debbie

bigpapalove

As a member of the RMT that will be striking next week, as part of the NR maintainance dispute, I feel I should clear a few things up.

Firstly, the last thing we wanted was a strike. We lose money, the public suffers, and the company spin the media to make the Unions look like they were happy disrupting peoples journeys.

Some of the media coverage over the last week has, to be polite, been grossly inaccurate, and stinks of a media that has been spoon fed stories and 'experts' by NR.

One 'expert' stated that we were striking over minor issues, NR spokeman said that the union has never mentioned safety during talks.

Here is a short history of why things have to to where they are:

Over a year ago NR placed an offer of new T+Cs to the unions, it was refused asfter a ballot, and the company said OK, you can stay as you are. Everyone was happy, life plodded along as normal.

Last year NR sent another offer to the unions, this time poorer T+Cs bundled with a remanning and job cuts of 1500 frontline maintainance staff. Obviously this was again refused by the unions. However, NR then aggresively continued to try and implement their plans for the remanning and staff reductions. They started briefing us that, in April 2010, we would have had the remanning, the 1500 staff would have gone, and the new T+Cs would be in place. It wasn't a question of 'if agreed', it was a simple statement of 'accept it or leave the company'.

I'd like to highlight some of the proposed changes in the T+Cs too:

Reduction of enhancements - lower premiums for weekend, nighttime, and overtime working

Increase in weekend shifts - from the current 39 a year to 91 rostered weekend shifts a year

Increase in days - a reduction from 2 days to 1 day off per week

Multiskilling - creating a workforce of 'jack of all trades'

Now while some of you may think some of these are not too bad, look at the details. 91 weekend shifts. So you goto bed on a Saturday teatime to rest before work, you go to work for the night, then to bed Sunday morning. You get up around lunchtime on Sunday. Thats half your weekend with your family gone, and they expected us to more than double that. Goodbye family life.

A reduction in premiums, and a scrapping of payments for carrying out higher roles than you normally carry out, would mean a reduction in take home pay. That tied with an increase in compulsary nightshift working means goodbye social life.

The points above are just a small selection of how the changes would affect us, the staff on the track. Essentially we could say goodbye to spending any kind of quality time with our family and friends. With the introduction of a clause allowing the company to change 20 shifts per roster, would also mean you could never make plans for rest days, because the company could force you to work them.

Anybody out there still fancying signing up to the new terms?


The main problem with what NR have proposed goes beyond us seeing family and friends, it is the safety of you, the travelling public. Over the last few years recruitment for staff actually down on the track doing all the dirty heavy jobs has as good as stopped. Many men have left, and have not been replaced. When I started 10 years ago every gang had 8 men in them. Today some are down to only 4, covering the same sized area, or larger in some cases.

We were just about keeping on top of faults, and doing a decent, quality, and long term job on fixing the ones we did find.

So, half the men, and already you can see that things have NOT got safer, as NR would try and make you believe. A lot of faults are found by visual inspections. Every week every inch of track is visually inspected and walked to ensure it is safe. Minor faults found are logged and will be fixed in due course.

NR are wanting to reduce the number of staff carrying out these essential weekly checks. So, tomorrow someone finds a broken rail, or a cracked joint, or stretcher bars that are not bolted together properly and are loose... ring a bell anyone?


We love our jobs, the railway is a wonderful thing, and we've taken a lot of crap from NR. However, when it comes to seriously jepordising the safety of the public we MUST draw a line. We're not out for a huge payrise, we're happy with what we have. We're not trying to get some huge bonus or new deal, we're happy with what we get.

What we don't want is a reduction of an already skeleton maintainance section that cannot keep the railway network safe if these cuts go ahead.

During the strikes office men and contractors will be trying to keep the railway safe. Men that don't know the track like we do. Some staff could tell you every little feature, every little bump or twist that an area has had in the last 10 years, every apple tree along the way, or the names of every farmer whose land is adjacent to the track.

We care, and we won't sit back while safety is put aside so that the books balance. Yes, we know the way we work needs tweaking, but a lot of what NR are saying to the media we already do. We work 24hrs a day, 365 days of the year, come rain hail snow or gales.

Next time it gets icy, and I mean -10C and below kind of icy, do me a favour. Put a jumper and a jacket on, and some gloves, and a hard hat. Then go find an open field and stand in the middle of it for the night with just a dim torch for company.

Doesn't sound fun does it? That the kind of enviroment we work in, middle of nowhere, alone, whatever the weather. If it keeps the trains running and the railway safe, we'll be there.

So if you're planning on travelling during the strike, please spare a thought for us. We don't want to ruin your day, we just want you to be able to board that train safe in the knowledge that below you on the track are passionate world class men that intend to get you to where you're going quickly and safely.

We're not asking for more for ourselves, we're asking for no more cuts for YOUR safety.

robt_2

There is some truth in the post above. There is also some bullcrap, so take it with a pinch of salt.

It would probably be best off in Discussion Time (if there is not already a thread there).

This is a thread for the tens of thousands of people who pay our (yes, OUR wages) who are being disrupted through no fault of their own.

bigbullyweedave

Mrs. Bigbullyweedave here... I have to be in London for work on Wednesday 7th but decided to go via the West Coast and see a friend in Preston on the way down, then Megabus overnight the rest of the way, then back up from London again first thing on the 8th. The company holding the London meeting is paying for the trip (and it was cheaper for the time I was leaving than going straight to London), but now there's a whole lot of ways that could go wrong :mad: Am just waiting at the moment to see if the Preston journey looks like it could happen before I decide what changes I have to make (obviously the Megabus is non-refundable), or if I can go at all - so frustrating.

I really want to be supportive of the union, but if this timing is to embarrass the government, it's also ridiculously inconveniencing not just those of us who have to travel but all the extra people traveling long distances for Easter break. Not the way to make lots of friends...

Dr.Rock

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

I agree. That's the point they seem to be missing, i.e. people have to make arrangements NOW, not wait until they finish shilly-shallying around and make an official decision. I think that they should be morally obliged to refund tickets for 6th-9th now, whether or not they actually do strike, as many people will be in a similar position to yourself and to a certain extent myself, although I only stand to lose £12 for my 6th ticket, as I have managed to book another £12 ticket for 5th. It's still a matter of principle though.

Exactly. If you turn up at the station and your train isn't running it's too late to make alternative arrangements.

bigpapalove wrote: »

Firstly, the last thing we wanted was a strike. We lose money, the public suffers, and the company spin the media to make the Unions look like they were happy disrupting peoples journeys.

If the last thing the whole union wanted was a strike then there wouldn't be a strike. Sadly for the RMT it's not about what the members want, it's about what Comrade Crow and his ego wants.