Trainline.com and the tube strike

Sparky67

I never travel to London, and live just south of Sheffield, so any talk of tube strikes on the news obviously passed me by. Anyway, I had cause to travel to the south coast for a job interview last week, which involved a change from Kings Cross to Victoria.

I booked a return ticket with Trainline.com.

On the morning I was due to travel I noticed on the news that there was a tube strike that day. I checked, and the connection I needed to make was impossible to do without a tube as walking and going by bus would take too long (and I cannot walk that distance as I am waiting for a knee operation).

I took out the travel insurance, but having checked later that only covers strikes that were no known at the time of booking. Although I didn't know there was a strike, it was out there somewhere.

I have complained to Trainline.com as i incurred a taxi fare of £30 in a futile attempt to make the connection on the way out. On the return journey I came back early to avoid rush hour in London, and had to pay an additional £56 on the train as I wasn't on the one I booked on.

Trainline have told me to contact Transport for London for compensation as it was their strike. My point is they took my money for a ticket that was always going to be impossible and made no attempt to warn me. They have told me that had I ticked the box to receive marketing emails, they would have updated me about my journey (presumably only after they had taken my money!).

To my mind, I had a contract with Trainline which was impossible for them to fulfill, which caused me additional expense. If a journey relied on a tube connection, surely it wouldn't have been difficult for a warning message to pop up when booking? I have insurance that won't cover me because I should have known about the strike, and their answer is that I should have signed up for their marketing emails...

They took my money for a contract that was impossible to fulfill. Do I have any redress here?

giraffe69

If you were going to the South coast couldn't you have changed to Thameslink at Kings Cross (which was running)?

Sparky67

I have no idea. The trainline didn't give me that option.

I am having to go again this week - I'm driving this time!

giraffe69

Strange because that is the first journey offered to, for example, Brighton or Gatwick.

Voyager2002

Sparky67 wrote: »

I have no idea. The trainline didn't give me that option.

I am having to go again this week - I'm driving this time!

Don't drive, but buy your ticket directly from a Train Operating Company (such as East Coast). They are likely to be helpful in precisely the ways that Trainline failed to be.

cookie365

Also, I don't understand why when you got to Kings Cross you didn't just ask a member of staff if there was a way to get to wherever it is on the South coast that didn't involve the tube.

miller

I've come across this one in the past. Back in November 2010 when I believe there was a tube strike planned on the 28 November. If memory serves me correctly it didn't go ahead in the end...

Anyway there wasn't much information around so I emailed East Midlands Trains (several times to get a definitive answer as they consulted Transport for London). I was travelling on an advance ticket to Nottingham and needed to cross-london the other way - but the same principle applies.

To cut a long story short TfL said the ticket would be accepted on buses and East Midlands Trains said if that meant I missed the connection to travel on the next available service. These days you'd probably be able to bang in a delay repay claim afterwards.

yorkie2

What was the journey?

It was possible to make the journey, and if you had asked for advice you would have been given it.