Great Western Coffee Shop

Just attempted to send ATOC an email regarding the "excess fare instructions" (which don't seem to be available anywhere) and just received this automated response:

"The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please try resending this message later, or contact the recipient directly."

Brilliant - lets try again tomorrow ::)

P.S. Any ideas on who might hold this document as some station staff* don't appear to even know what an excess fare is, let alone how to calculate the fare.

* = Relevant TOC (not FGW) already contacted

All retail information for rail ticket should be available to all TOC retail staff via the The Manual (https://themanual.tso.co.uk). Unfortunately, it's not available to us ordinary folk you need a login fro ATOC to access any information - but you can run a search to display the pages that are in there.

There's also some good info from the (mostly) knowledgeable folk at Rail UK Forms on this thread (http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=33139). They have quite a few rail works on there so the info is generally fairly reliable.

Hope some of this helps!

What is it you actually after?

The document I'm after is listed on the website given by TheLastMinute as "The Manual > Excess Fare Procedures".  I'd like to see everything within this section.

I can't see why these documents should be hidden from the public?  Surely we are entitled to find out how much we will be charged for excess tickets which are available from every station?

Are ATOC subject to the Freedom of Information Act?  I know the DafT are, but they probably won't hold this information.

Well these are the sub-sections:   
 
    * Customers' obligations to purchase tickets before travelling
    * Customers travelling with out of date travel tickets and Season Tickets
    * Customers wishing to use Train Company-specific tickets on another Train Company's services
    * Excess Fares and National Rail Conditions of Carriage
    * The Excess Fare to charge when there was ^no opportunity to buy^ before boarding the train
    * The Excess Fare to charge where there was ^opportunity to buy^ before boarding the train
    * Travel with a combination of tickets
    * Excess Fares for Accompanied Animals and Articles
    * Handwritten Excess Tickets (RSP 4407 and RSP 4408)
    * Accounting for Excess Fares
    * Exceptions to Excess Fare rules

Out of them what do you actually want to know about...

The most important ones I'm after are:

    * The Excess Fare to charge when there was ^no opportunity to buy^ before boarding the train
    * The Excess Fare to charge where there was ^opportunity to buy^ before boarding the train
    * Exceptions to Excess Fare rules
    * Excess Fares and National Rail Conditions of Carriage

However, these could also be a very interesting read:

    * Customers wishing to use Train Company-specific tickets on another Train Company's services
    * Travel with a combination of tickets

Can't see ATOC being exempt form the FoI act, at least not for the information you are after. I'm not sure they will provide you with the requested information initially, so you may have to resort to an FoI request, which will cost you a tenner at least. But stick with it and let us know if and when you get the requested info.

You mean they are not covered by the Act, surely?

It would indeed appear that FOI does not apply to ATOC, from a very quick reading of the Government's page here:
http://www.foi.gov.uk/yourRights/coverageguide.htm (http://www.foi.gov.uk/yourRights/coverageguide.htm)

As a trade association for a collection of private companies, it would be pretty odd if it were liable to FOI... 

Paul

Thanks for the input everyone.

Finally got the e-mail to send yesterday and ATOC have today replied with everything I asked for.  The document says exactly what I expected and will be presenting this to the relevant ticket office next time they attempt to charge the incorrect fare.