Rail Innovation Exhibition 2025 - 13th February 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Innovate UK^▸ (United Kingdom)

Join us in London for the Rail Innovation Exhibition 2025 delivered in partnership with the Department for Transport. The event will bring together over 500 delegates from industry, research, and trade associations, including Network Rail - this is the place to review the latest in rail innovation.

This year we aim to provide you with ample networking time and enable you to connect with innovators across the rail supply chain.

Register now to secure your place at the 2025 Rail Innovation Exhibition.

Please note we are now at capacity for 2025 Exhibition stands.

[grahame]

A very interesting day indeed - full report at https://grahamellis.uk/blog1507.html


Comfort at the conference - discomfort in the train, standing, Paddington to Pewsey


Further passenger information - and what we have today


Current advert wishing us a jolly good journey which it wasn't, and new seats on display


A map from today, and a screen of different look and feels for different TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) data presentation

[Mark A]

From your blog "....an advanced ticket apparently cannot be used on a different route..."

I'm not sure how much discretion staff on the ground have: I'm thinking of the times I've been booked onto the route via Salisbury and that hasn't worked out, either because it was disrupted or I'd missed the last train via Salisbury owing to disruption on the rail network elsewhere (Hell, Dover). In all cases, staff have excessed the ticket free of charge to travel via Paddington and at least one of those times, the ticket involved was an advance purchase one.

Especially for Melksham to Paddington, if it doesn't work like that already it would be good practice for the railway to drop restrictions on routes and get individual passengers moving - at that point the passenger has made the choice to travel by rail, there's no cost to the railway - and possibly a cost saving, perhaps on delay-repay costs or if the disruptions serious, it decreases the chances that they'd be paying a taxi fare for the passenger that they've stranded.

Mark

[GBM]

Love it.......

From the blog
I don't live in Utopia. I live in Melksham. And whilst I'm sure I could have found the money had it been vital to catch those particular trains and have that flexibility I prefer to save my money and use it for other things. Looking around at what was on offer through the very same booking site with great Western I found affair at around £64 from Melksham to London on the 06 32 train that's a 50 minute earlier start changing at Westbury and arriving into London Paddington 10 minutes ahead of the time of the ideal train. And that fair is a first class fair so it is the equivalent of the half the £327 (return) fare including multiple cups of coffee and a rather nice raspberry croissant.

Guessing Lisa didn't mind that software error......

[grahame]

From your blog "....an advanced ticket apparently cannot be used on a different route..."

I'm not sure how much discretion staff on the ground have: ...

On the ground they are usually excellent - one of the things the railway has right.   Problem was that there was no-one on the ground to help / advise and this person who advised me of the rule seemed to be so far away that he had insufficient knowledge of the local geography to be of practical and logical assistance.

Love it.......

From the blog
...  with great Western I found affair at around £64 from Melksham to London on the 06 32 train ...

Guessing Lisa didn't mind that software error......

  . Lisa says she is not that cheap.  I have gone back and corrected the original and a whole slew of other errors that resulting from dictations.   "Isles" for "Aisles", "milk station" for "Melksham Station", "fair" for "fare", etc.   I normally try to go back "light" in editing, but as this is being picked up as a report rather wider than just a personal log, I am correcting more vigorously in this case

Edit to add

Especially for Melksham to Paddington, if it doesn't work like that already it would be good practice for the railway to drop restrictions on routes and get individual passengers moving - at that point the passenger has made the choice to travel by rail, there's no cost to the railway - and possibly a cost saving, perhaps on delay-repay costs or if the disruptions serious, it decreases the chances that they'd be paying a taxi fare for the passenger that they've stranded.

Yes, and if you can check with a local member of staff that is usually authorised - clearly where the railway has not provided the service it has advertised and sold, it's in their interest to to the best they can to keep the passenger happy, especially where it's at no extra cost to the railway.

[ChrisB]

My understanding of Advance fares T&Cs is that with any disruption, you drop back (or forward, with enough notice) onto the next/previous service *on the same route* as purchased. If you want the flexibility of re-routing, then buy a (more) flexible fare.
You are entitled by way of delay compensation, but re-routing isn't specifically allowed, without operator strict permission. Their call, not yours. If you don't like T&Cs of Advances, one doesn't have to purchase thyat type of ticket.

[grahame]

My understanding of Advance fares T&Cs is that with any disruption, you drop back (or forward, with enough notice) onto the next/previous service *on the same route* as purchased. If you want the flexibility of re-routing, then buy a (more) flexible fare.

You are entitled by way of delay compensation, but re-routing isn't specifically allowed, without operator strict permission. Their call, not yours. If you don't like T&Cs of Advances, one doesn't have to purchase thyat type of ticket.

That is my understanding too - I asked for and was denied permission.   I planned to be on the 06:32, into London at 08:35, for which I paid (First Class) £63.90.    Had I bought a flexible ticket allowing me to drop back to the 07:21 and arriving in London at 08:48 then that would have cost me £108.95 and I hadn't felt that to be an extra investment I wanted to make just in case GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) failed to provide the timetabled service.   

I was disappointed to be denied permission; my personal view is that if the rail industry isn't able to provide what it has advertised and sold you, it should then let you travel via the next available train, even if that means it's via Swindon and not via Westbury. 

I am also now aware that under the rules, if the 06:32 had been cancelled (and in the circumstances, there was good operational logic for them to turn the 05:11 from Gloucester at Swindon and the 06:35 from Salisbury at Westbury) that my next available train after the denial or route change would have been the 09:10 getting me to Paddington at 12:05 - three and a half hours after the advertised train.   Had that happened I would have been incandescent with rage!

[ChrisB]

I am also now aware that under the rules, if the 06:32 had been cancelled (and in the circumstances, there was good operational logic for them to turn the 05:11 from Gloucester at Swindon and the 06:35 from Salisbury at Westbury) that my next available train after the denial or route change would have been the 09:10 getting me to Paddington at 12:05 - three and a half hours after the advertised train.   Had that happened I would have been incandescent with rage!

That is at a delayed range that I would expect the operator to make an allowance had there been no other option (like the one you took)

[grahame]

That is at a delayed range that I would expect the operator to make an allowance had there been no other option (like the one you took)

At Melksham we only have remote access via the help point ... and histostorically have been told to wait for even longer. What you might expect of staff in person in terms of understanding when the delay is very long don't apply here. Probably because there is nothing like having a disgruntled passenger hanging around at your station for hours, but if you're based in a call centre you are immune to that.

For all the talk at the innovation show, the very best innovation would be to have a real person to help triage issues - read data feeds, help interpret ticketing options, serve the odd cup of coffee (and if we push the boat out, a cup of tea and a packeted slice of cake)

[eightonedee]

the very best innovation would be to have a real person to help triage issues - read data feeds, help interpret ticketing options, serve the odd cup of coffee (and if we push the boat out, a cup of tea and a packeted slice of cake)


Posted on: Today at 15:48:26Posted by: ChrisB

You are entitled by way of delay compensation, but re-routing isn't specifically allowed, without operator strict permission. Their call, not yours. If you don't like T&Cs of Advances, one doesn't have to purchase thyat type of ticket.

The best innovation would be for the first step in fare simplification to be to get rid of all these T&Cs for categories of tickets. It should be regarded as absolutely unacceptable for someone to sell a service, fail to deliver it and then impose conditions that make the passenger's attempts to mitigate the service provider's failure more difficult or impossible in any way to enable them to enjoy something like what they originally paid for.

[ChrisB]

Fine. Just only buy the anytime fares. They are T&Cs free, travel anytime.