Advance Tickets

[whole diary]

[phile]

Excuse my ignorance on this matter as I wnjot Staff Travel Concessions.  What is the procedure if somebody who has purchased a ticket to travel on a specified service misses the connection into this service due to late running of their original train especially if a different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) train is involved.

[ellendune]

Ideally ask the TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context) on the delayed service to record on your ticket that the train is late.  If not speak to staff of train you are joining.  They should allow you to travel on the next available service.

[EBrown]

Excuse my ignorance on this matter as I wnjot Staff Travel Concessions.  What is the procedure if somebody who has purchased a ticket to travel on a specified service misses the connection into this service due to late running of their original train especially if a different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) train is involved.

Just get on the next train. No need to get your ticket endorsed and ask the train manager - it'll all verifiable with control (even with a different TOC).

[grahame]

Just get on the next train. No need to get your ticket endorsed and ask the train manager - it'll all verifiable with control (even with a different TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)).

However, if you're travelling on a BUS that is delayed to connect into a train, even if the bus is run by the same company that runs the train and should easily connect, that's a different story ...

[JayMac]

The full rules on this are sadly not in the public domain but the guidance given to rail staff on this issue is pretty comprehensive (extracted from 'The Manual' and copied/pasted from another public forum):

Frequently Asked Questions about travelling with Advance fares.

Q22 - Can a passenger travel on any trains other than the one on which they are reserved, without changing the booking?

A: The following principles apply.

1). Start of the Journey. It is the passenger^s responsibility to turn up at the start of the journey in time for the first train. If they miss it due to problems parking, taxi not turning up etc, they must buy a new ticket;

2). Once the journey has begun. If the passenger is delayed and the rail industry or its partners (as shown below) is at fault, which should be checked with your Control Office, change to another train of the same company is allowed to get them to their destination with the least delay. This is irrespective of combinations of rail tickets held. Examples are:

Included: are passengers travelling on valid:

Through domestic or international tickets, e.g. Brighton- Scarborough route ^TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) X & Connections^;

Through rail & partner tickets for which there is a through bus, tube, ferry or metro fare, e.g. London Zone U12- Leeds, Wisbech Coach-York; Ryde Pier-Hull, etc;

Combination of domestic rail-only tickets, e.g. rail season ticket Skipton-Leeds plus Advance ticket Leeds-Peterborough; or adjoining Advance tickets;

Combination of domestic rail & partner tickets e.g. Brighton- London Zone U12 plus Advance ticket London-Manchester, or Advance ticket Bristol-Paddington plus tube single ticket plus Advance ticket Kings Cross to Hull.

All-Zones Travelcard, PTE^▸ (Passenger Transport Executive)-products etc (where rail is included) plus Advance ticket;

Combination of Eurostar tickets into the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) and then either advance purchase tickets from London Terminals or ^London Intnl CIV^▸ (International Convention for the transportation of Passengers (lit. Convention Internationale pour le transport des Voyageurs))^ or ^Lndon Eurostar CIV^.

Not included: for the avoidance of doubt, are:

Non train-company travel on separate tickets e.g. journeys that commence on bus-only, tube-only, ferry-only or metro-only tickets. (This includes ^PlusBus^ which is a local day- Rover bus ticket, not compatible with a medium/ long distance ^Advance^ single journey, so are kept as separate tickets); or
Tickets that cannot be read on-train e.g. smartcards (but allowable where electronically checked, delay verified and Advance ticket endorsed in Travel Centres).

[phile]

I recall an instance last year when passengers could be inconvenienced unnecessarily.    I was on a Cross Country train train heading towards Bristol and the West Country and which was preceding a late running and also XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) train going in the same direction but which had been delayed and following instead of preceding us.   The Train Manager announced that passengers holding tickets for the late running service were not authorised to travel on our train.
In other words, they would just have to wait through no fault of their own  instead of XC allowing them to reach their destination as soon as possible.