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

epm-84

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

I believe the East Coast restriction is due to some major track works going on.

Yes and they are running services on strike days so there will be less need for passengers to transfer their journey to another day.

Livingthedream

epm-84 wrote: »

I did say in the next line that if you had a ticket for a 10am service then you should use it at around 10am. I didn't quote directly off the NRE website as I thought it might get confusing as the one hour rule you quoted then has peak and off-peak restrictions appiled still so a 10am advance may not be valid on a service departing at 09:29 even if the next service is 11:30.

IIRC Advance tickets don't suffer peak/off peak restrictions, there just valid for the specific train booked and following National Rail's service disruptions guidelines it doesn't matter its +/- 1 hour or the nearest train if outside those times.

epm-84

Livingthedream wrote: »

IIRC Advance tickets don't suffer peak/off peak restrictions, there just valid for the specific train booked and following National Rail's service disruptions guidelines it doesn't matter its +/- 1 hour or the nearest train if outside those times.

The prices for Advances in the off-peak period are much cheaper than Advances in the peak period e.g. an Advance for Manchester to London at 08:00 could cost 6 times as much as one at 09:30. If you have an Advance for the first off-peak train and find that it is cancelled but the last peak train is running 30 minutes late then you cannot board the late running peak service without the conductors/train manager's permission and they'll usually say no except in cases of severe disruption i.e. there isn't another service in the next hour. I was at Stockport when such an incident occured and the PA announcer told people in no uncertain terms that if they had a ticket for the cancelled train then they must not board the late running peak train unless they wanted to pay an excess.

Livingthedream

epm-84 wrote: »

The prices for Advances in the off-peak period are much cheaper than Advances in the peak period e.g. an Advance for Manchester to London at 08:00 could cost 6 times as much as one at 09:30. If you have an Advance for the first off-peak train and find that it is cancelled but the last peak train is running 30 minutes late then you cannot board the late running peak service without the conductors/train manager's permission and they'll usually say no except in cases of severe disruption i.e. there isn't another service in the next hour. I was at Stockport when such an incident occured and the PA announcer told people in no uncertain terms that if they had a ticket for the cancelled train then they must not board the late running peak train unless they wanted to pay an excess.

The price of Advance tickets is all about supply and demand and yes your right, advance tickets for travel in peak times will be priced on a higher tier. However, back to what this thread is about, following National Rail's service disruptions guidelines you have every right to travel on any train peak or off peak within +/- 1 hour or the nearest train if outside those times of your orginal advance ticket booked train.

frames1_uk

I've given up panicking about travel to London on 6th, I have booked bus tickets instead.

KeithP

caoimhin wrote: »

Three train companies operate between Manchester and Sheffield, not one of them is planning to run their service though, meaning I have to go through Leeds on Tuesday.

Multiple services seem to be running on other routes though e.g. Trans Pennine are running both Manchester - Leeds and Manchester - Newcastle (passes through Leeds). What is the point? When resources are so limited this seems like an utter waste.

If there are no signalmen[1] available for Manchester to Sheffield, then no train company can run that route.
Of course the opposite is true... if signalmen[1] are available, every train company can run that route.

Hope that helps your understanding.


[1] the term signalmen also includes women.

epm-84

All signal boxes should be manned between 10am and 6pm as the strike periods are 6am-10am and 6pm-10pm, but most operators have opted to not run a service on any line where the signal boxes will only be manned from 10am to 6pm. Network Rail have worked with some of the operators to ensure that some routes have manned signal boxes between 7am and 7pm.

Simon11

My prediction: The strike will be cancelled!

Lets see what happens in the next 2 hours

xxWATCH THIS SPACExx

frames1_uk

that's my prediction too, but costly all the same, as me and lots of others have already made alternative arrangements...

bigbullyweedave

Mrs. BBWD here again... just had a conversation with a lovely customer services rep from First Transpennine. I'm concerned that, even though my train from Edinburgh to Preston is running on the 6th (yay!), it is the last train of the day on that route before the 7pm shutdown. So if anything went wrong (oh I bloody hope not), I'd be stuck in Edinburgh and unable to use my bus ticket from Preston to London to my meeting. She spoke to her manager, and they were both of the opinion that, even though the train I booked an advance on is running (and therefore not refundable), if I tried to get on an earlier train and explained that I needed to make sure I arrived that evening, she was "almost positive" that would be fine. She expected they would be more flexible (try: more flustered!) because of the scope of the strike.

Think I may try that. At least I have a ticket on a train which should run. Allegedly.

(I'm confused but somewhat reassured )