Buck-passing continues over GWR ticket refund

In RAIL 904, I wrote of the reader who had an advance ticket from Mobberley to Cornwall via Euston and Paddington, and who missed his train at Paddington because the Underground was shut for engineering work.

The booking clerk would not accept that as reasonable and charged him £90 in new tickets. Great Western Railway would not refund this, saying it was his fault… Raileasy said it couldn’t refund as it wasn’t their fault… and the Ombudsman agreed with GWR.

I said I thought that this whole affair was one of ineptitude and buck-passing from GWR to the Ombudsman to Raileasy.

In fairness, Raileasy contacted me to say they did agree with me that GWR was at fault, and they asked me to send them a copy of the Ombudsman’s reply - agreeing that was also wrong.

Raileasy’s opinion is that the Tube, when part of a through-booked ticket across London, counts as would a National Rail journey and so if anything goes wrong the customer should be allowed onto the next train. It added that GWR should refund the £90 and took it up with the operator, which has not replied.

I have passed all this detail to Transport Focus, which would have handled this better than the Ombudsman in the first place. TF has told me it is also taking this up with GWR and will report back.

What on earth is wrong with GWR’s Customer Services? The ‘John Lewis approach’? A customer misses a train by four minutes through no fault of his own, their clerk wrongly charges him £90, and they refuse to refund it.

As with the dreadful TransPennine refusal to refund a reader ( The Fare Dealer, RAIL 906) this is again a FirstGroup operator. Remember the slogan they used to use: ‘Transforming Travel’? These two operators are certainly doing that!