Great Western Coffee Shop

At the weekend, one train operating company operating services south and west of London, beset by woes, and despite more or less round the houses alternative routes being available to certain destinations, was pushing out the message

'Since we have advised not to travel, no ticket acceptance is in place'.

This came as a surprise particularly to people travelling inbound to the area they served - especially as the advice not to travel had been issued after they commenced their journey.

Perhaps some TOCs, despite the evidence of their own ticket receipts tend to forget that the UK's railway system is a national one: at any time, passengers may use their trains as part of a journey spanning several train operating companies. I'm reminded of Graham's walk from Melksham last summer - awaiting arrivals at the station, at least one passenger awaiting the late running train was heading for a minor station in Lancashire I think it was.

I'm slightly confident that railway staff on the ground would sort things for a passenger on an advance ticket from say Sheffield to Southampton via London that because of disruption, pragmatically diverted via Brighton or Bristol, but it would be good if advice to them encouraged them to complete their journey by the best available route rather than the response 'No ticket acceptance in place'.

Mark