Great Western Coffee Shop

A passenger with an Advance Purchase ticket from Sandwell & Dudley to London Terminals (route: VWC & CONNECTNS) with an itinerary that is...

1157 Sandwell & Dudley - Birmingham New St 1206
walk
1255 Birmingham Moor St - London Marylebone 1446

... follows that itinerary but is charged ^30 at Birmingham Moor St by staff who decide that the ticket isn't valid.

An interesting exchange then follows on twitter where Virgin blame Chiltern, but others defend Chiltern.

https://twitter.com/stampsy1985/status/462919926471471105/photo/1

On the face of it there appears to be some errors in the system where these VWC & CONNECTNS Advance Purchase tickets are giving journey options with the majority of the journey being on the connecting service. That shouldn't really happen. However, Chiltern should not be charging a passenger who has bought a ticket and followed the itinerary. If they believe the ticket to have been issued in error they should, at worst, withdraw it but allow the passenger to complete the journey. They most definitely should not be charging the passenger.

Such a scenario is actually covered in guidance issued to rail staff:

From the Advance Fares FAQs:

This person who took to twitter wasn't alone in having to buy a new ticket because Chiltern this weekend were erroneously refusing to abide by the National Rail Conditions of Carriage or their own industry procedures:

https://twitter.com/HelenJollye/status/462956714070147072/photo/1

These sort of things should be sorted internally. Passengers should not be made to think they are at fault. And they certainly shouldn't be charged more when they have a valid ticket, itinerary, and ultimately, contract. Chiltern have done themselves and the industry no favours whatsoever here. If this gets wider publicity than twitter and a few forums, Chiltern only have themselves to blame.

I would fully expect that Virgin will refund passengers who were travelling via different route and charged extra but that will rely on those who were charged extra to put in a claim. It's at times like this that make me cross that passengers that are already inconvenienced by engineering work are having more stress added by TOCs not ensuring all ticket arrangements are set in place for this past weekends engineering work. Not good enough.

To make things worse surprise surprise the engineering work at Watford is overrunning. You just knew it would so those who held off their journey this weekend to travel this morning will be disappointed that their journey will after all be affected. Another good PR job all round by the rail industry.

I suspect that got on the wrong thread, somehow ... quoting it here  ;D

I note

a) The routing given by the booking engine for the advance ticket is going to be an unusual one - in my experience, advance bookings offer next train / earliest arrival only, and that's not usually going to involve the time taken for a walk across Brum.

b) Engineering works like this offer the company to whom the passengers have been diverted the opportunity to showcase their service.   "Welcome to Chiltern Trains.  Thank you for travelling with us.   We'll be very busy today because engineering works have closed the London to Birmingham via Milton Keynes line, but we'll do our best to give you a comfortable and quick journey.   Why not try our service again [offer deal]"

Ah yes, thank you Grahame and apologies. Please feel free to delete it from the other place if you think it would be appropriate.

All tidied up  ;D   ...