What to do if your train is cancelled

[whole diary]

[grahame]

If your train's cancelled, it's usually up to the train operator to get you to your destination station.

How to get you to your destination

If there's another train coming along in half an hour or so (or less), standard advise is to wait for that train - and indeed that will offer you the quickest route to destination anyway by the time other arrangements are made.

If there isn't another train coming, what if there's a bus route that goes to the destination station?  The train operator may have (or may make) arrangements for your train ticket to be accepted on the bus, and suggest you use it.  But the bus isn't always the answer; the journey can take much longer, to the extent that waiting for the next train will get you there earlier (Chippenham to Bath Spa - 15 minutes by train or 66 by bus)

Where there is no train any time soon, and no bus service that acts as a substitute, the train operator will arrange for road replacement transport - if the volume is low by taxi, or if there's a lot of passengers by hiring a rail replacement bus.  The taxis are arranged by the station operator (at staffed stations) and by 'control' at unstaffed stations.  Just about every station that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) calls at now has a help point that lets you speak to a person representing the company, and they are your initial point of contact at stations which are unstaffed, and also a fallback start point if you can't find the staff!

Should the cancelled service be connecting on into another service for which you have a specificly allocated ticket, you'll be allowed to travel on the next available service, and rail industry data will allow ticket inspecrors to be aware this has happened.

On paying and claiming extra journey costs

Don't take on extra expense (e.g. taxi or bus fares) in the expectation of being repayed, unless you have spoken with someone and got an authorisation first.  It may well be that a taxi is the quickest, easiest anc chepaest way to get you to destination, but the railways can and will link people together to share a taxi, and have their own system for authorising and paying taxi drivers, so you need to let them organise it. With the railway doing the organising, it keeps their costs down (and eventually your fare down?), their admin down, and it avoids most potential for abuse of the system such as false claims.

There will be occasions where it is suggested you use the bus, but the bus driver may not be aware of the circumstance / any arrangement, and in this specific condition, it is suggested that you send your bus and train ticket for a refund.   This would be unusual for a taxi from a staffed station, where the staff will be well familiar with the procedure and walk over to the rank.

On claiming back later for costs is you weren't aware of the 'rules'

This is a difficult one.  Rail staff are very familiar with handling disruption inclusing cancellation; trains are very reliable indeed, and information systems keep us far better informed than happens with te buses.   BUT passengers - especially occasional ones - are not familiiar and may step outside the recommended route above and take on expenses because the rail network has failed to deliver their journey by train.

By all means write to customer services.  Explain. Show you took the steps (as best you knew them) to use the system, and to minimise the extra cost. The agents who look at your request will be individuals like you and me - keep it friendly and polite.   It's probably not a good idea to say you were on a specific timescale and had to be at destination within a few minutes of the train's due time, as a railway ticket's for a journey not usually a time.

Personal and other comment

I have a huge sympathy for tourists who's command of English is poor, and for others who don't have the skills to communicate well or who (by their look) get negatively stereotyped by rail staff (sorry, it happens!) and get a raw deal. 

On compensation for delay  ...  Separate subject ... if you're delayed more than a certain amount ... I'll leave that to the experts!

Although it's "usually" up to the train operator to get you there, there are exceptions where the cause of the cancellation is outside the rail industry's control.  For example, they have no obligation if there's snow 3 foot deep on railway and road ...


Comments welcome - and I'll come back and tune this advise, perhaps make it a sticky topic

[ChrisB]

You might add fatality on the railway to that last para as most don't realise that this isn't covered by those rules either.

Apart from the typos, I can't fault that advise.

[froome]

I'm interested to know what the advice is if a train is cancelled, and (such as in the Chippenham example) that train would have been full seating and the next train coming can be expected to also have a full load. Would it be allowed to carry another full load's worth of passengers, all standing?

[Tim]

I'm interested to know what the advice is if a train is cancelled, and (such as in the Chippenham example) that train would have been full seating and the next train coming can be expected to also have a full load. Would it be allowed to carry another full load's worth of passengers, all standing?

Essentially, yes.  But of you didn't want to stand I am sure you would be permitted to travel on a later service with more space.  There is no rule that says that a train cannot carry more than x number of people.  It doesn't have a capacity limit like a bus.  But if it were too full to operate safely the driver/guard could decide not to dispatch it.   

[grahame]

I'm interested to know what the advice is if a train is cancelled, and (such as in the Chippenham example) that train would have been full seating and the next train coming can be expected to also have a full load. Would it be allowed to carry another full load's worth of passengers, all standing?

The standard advise on the ground is still "listen to the advise of the station staff or help pointer responder who should know the local situation".

There's no specific number of people beyond which you're no allowed to join a train; often-given answer here is "if you feel it's unsafe it's your choice not to travel".  

There are actually two examples of cancellations from Chippenham that this thread / post addresses.

1. The diversion go the 17:45 to Taunton to run via Westbury, thus cancelling it at Bath, Bristol and other stations on the way

I would suspect that both the 16:30 and 17:00 from Paddington (17:45 and 18:14 at Chippenham) drop off more passengers there than they gain; I'm not denying they 18:14 would have been full / perhaps so full it couldn't cope, but it would have been somewhat less of an issue than putting "two into one" might suggest.

2. The cancellation of the 17:53 to Westbury.  

Suggestion for Trowbridge and Westbury passengers - catch the next train to Bath and change there; you'll be into Trowbridge at 18:53 and Westbury at 19:01 - that's 40 minutes after plan, but better than waiting for the next train which doesn't leave Chippenham until 19:05.  "Via Melksham" tickets are honoured on this route in the event of such a cancellation, but let the station staff at Chippenham confirm that.   The 18:36 bus from the Chippenham Station forecourt doesn't arrive in Trowbridge until 19:23.

Passengers for Melksham ... the 18:36 bus arrives Melksham Market Place 19:03,  and the following train at 19:05 reaches Melksham at 19:15.  Even with the bus, that's an hour's delay and marginal for what the station staff choose to do.  Nothing to stop you forming your own "groupsave" club and 4 of you sharing a taxi at your cost if GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) don't.

Interestingly, if Melksham passengers arrive at Chippenham before 17:45 to find the 17:53 cancelled, their quickest route is to catch the 17:45, change at Bath (18:00 to 18:07) and Trowbridge (18:29 to 18:38) and get to Melksham at 18:47 - just 44 minutes late.  That presupposes that everything else is running to time, and the problem's not due to a train failure (as the 18:38 from Trowbridge is formed of the same unit as the cancelled one). Ticketing also potentially an issue on that one.

Although the 17:53 off Chippenham is usually full and standing (and more standing!), by the time some traffic heads off via Bath and others wait for the next train at 19:05, that train won't be packed or anything like.   Apart from anything else, the 19:05 is twice as long ...

[trainer]

The following account is based rather away from the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) area, but it nevertheless raises issues caused by train cancellations. 

On 18th October I was on a Eurostar train heading for France when at the mouth of the Channel Tunnel we stopped for 1 and 1/2hours before being told that we were going back to London.  At St Pancras it was announced that all services were suspended until further notice (it was now around 17:00) as the power failure in the Tunnel had no time for completion of the repair.  I believe the story made BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News (indeed, I appeared in an image used on their webpage - easily visible with the use of a magnifying glass!) as folk from all over the world from several trains tried to re-book, as instructed, and failed, as no bookings were being accepted and anyway you needed to do it on line.

I was fortunate to be in a group and the holiday company sorted us a bed for the night as Eurostar were inundated with anxious and confused passengers. I believe compensation will come in due course, but that was little comfort for those facing a night in London perhaps with children, medical issues or other needs.  The Police and security people were out in force and although there were large crowds there was order and staff were talking to people on the concourse not hiding away. It was not clear what exactly the responsibility of the train company was and how much responsibility passengers needed to take for their own overnight accommodation, but had I been an individual traveller, I would have booked something (if I could) and claimed off my travel insurance. Had I been in Brussels on my own, I would not have been so sanguine.

The experience is not entirely comparable to a domestic rail failure, because we normally don't have insurance and distances and time are not the same. However, the feelings of helplessness when suddenly one is faced with complete uncertainty on a journey can lead to panic and how that panic is handled and the way we respond can make a huge difference to the outcome and our sense of control.

I believe Eurostar services recommenced later in the evening, but I was up at 5am to get the first train out the next day.