Great Western Coffee Shop

Not sure if this should be in cotswolds or here - feel free to move it.

There seems to be some confusion over what is valid and where......................the replacement timetable clearly says fares are valid via newport from hereford on a via evesham ticket.

Over the last two weeks, there have been arguments between some passengers and station staff over buying such a ticket.

There is an off peak return vald on the 06:08 departure from hereford via the diverted route.  If passengers are showing in time for the 06:42 to Newport the station are (a) refusing to sell the off peak returns and some barrier staff are (b) refusing to let the tickets through.

They are making them wait for the 07:13 departure arguing that the 06:42 would get them to London before the 06:08 direct and therefore they should have gotten that - or something similar.

All the TMs on both arriva and FGW have disagreed with this and advised the passengers to just buy it on the train - that Hereford are applying the strict letter of the law rather than the Spirit (but then it is a LM station - what do you expect!)

Of course hereford passengers are annoyed as this means they get stung where as ludlow/leominster etc arent because hereford is a barriered station.  There was one passenger this morning who had followed the TM's advice on friday and bought his ticket for today - and had to wait for the 07:13.

Is this because some people who would previously have paid via Newport are cottoning onto the fact they can save some cash over the summer and specify evesham?

This affected about six people this morning - if there was a higher volume, I suspect a riot would break out!

Hereford is an Arriva station isn't it??

I thought is was an LM!

but you are right......

Either way the original point is ........... they need to sort out their script!

This is a classic case of a lack of joined up thinking when major disruptions affect the routes a passenger can take to complete a journey. The TOCs are too insular and self interested when it comes to providing alternative routes. I recently experienced a West Coast Main Line infrastructure failure (after the much heralded 'completion' of the WCML upgrade) attempting to return to London from Manchester. After sitting at Piccadilly for 90 minutes going nowhere, passengers were eventually advised to take a TPE train to Sheffield and then an EMT service to St Pancras. So we all pile onto a TPE 3 car 185 for a hellish hour to Sheffield, only to discover that EMT had not been made aware of the influx of London bound passengers. EMT staff nearly caused a riot when they insisted that passengers on 'VWC only' tickets would need to buy new tickets and claim the fare back from Virgin. And this is from a TOC that shares a parent company with Virgin (Stagecoach). What hope FGW passengers from North Cotswolds, Worcs etc. attempting to use LM, ATW, CHT or VWC to get to London during the current disruption?