Last bus did not turn up.

zaax

If the last bus of the day (10.30pm) did not turn-up, and it cost me £20 taxi to get home can I claim it back from the bus company?

The_ICT_Engineer

You can try, but don't get your hopes up, if it's Stenchcoach.

Voyager2002

Something similar happened to me once (the bus to the airport did not turn up and I needed to get a taxi in order to catch my flight). I wrote to the Traffic Commissioner (the regulator for the bus service) and I think that I did eventually get a refund of the taxi fare. (I can't remember since I was travelling on business and in any case the company picked up the taxi fare.)

Do be aware that bus companies are allowed to run buses five minutes earlier or later than the advertised time, so if you just got to the bus stop a couple of minutes before departure time and missed it then you are out of luck.

rach_k

It's worth checking the bus operator's policies. Where I used to live, if the bus didn't turn up (and as the previous poster said, you need to be at the bus stop 5 minutes before the advertised time and wait until 5 minutes after) you could get a taxi and as long as you got a receipt you could claim the money back from the bus company.

fionajbanana

I know it applies to the school bus. One day, the bus did not turn up on a day of a GCSE exam. Got a taxi to the school, and the head was kind enough to start the exam later until we all came in and the bus company got billed loads for 30 students sharing 9-10 taxis and the school was 9 miles away!

dandelionclock30

This happened to me, but it was the first bus of the day that knocked, so I had to get the 2nd one and then get a taxi from town to my sports club. It was a Sunday Morning and if I hadnt got a taxi then I would have missed the group.
I got a receipt from the taxi and then billed the bus company who apologized and reinbursed me.

pogofish

zaax wrote: »

If the last bus of the day (10.30pm) did not turn-up, and it cost me £20 taxi to get home can I claim it back from the bus company?

You can but you will need to be persistent as they will try to hide behind T&Cs/fob you off at every opportunity.

A friend recently did just this and needed to take it to a fairly senior level in the bus co concerned. She ended-up with the taxi fare refunded and around thirty quid in bus vouchers.

306chris

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

This happened to me, but it was the first bus of the day that knocked, so I had to get the 2nd one and then get a taxi from town to my sports club. It was a Sunday Morning and if I hadnt got a taxi then I would have missed the group.
I got a receipt from the taxi and then billed the bus company who apologized and reinbursed me.

A bus on a Sunday. No such thing round here with arriva. Their favorite trick is to cancel/not run the busses around rush hour in the evening.

StuC75

Had you prepaid for the travel ticket on that bus? may also be the case that no contract is entered into until you board the bus and pay the fare?. That way say if it was to break down once you had boarded then could be a cause to argue that the contract has been entered into by payment of the fare.. Otherwise you could have Half your family saying 'We were waiting for that bus too' and had to get separate taxis...

Personally would never take that risk with getting the 'last bus' or the 'last train' anywhere..

Fishingtime

zaax wrote: »

If the last bus of the day (10.30pm) did not turn-up, and it cost me £20 taxi to get home can I claim it back from the bus company?

Tell us what bus failed to turn up and then we can all try and claim the £20

zaax

Thanks, I have already written to First Bus (no reply yet). but i didn't think of getting a receipt from the taxi driver at the time.