Passengers have to pay twice for tickets home

Passengers from a cancelled Grand Central train at London King’s Cross on July 8 had to buy new tickets to reach York using LNER trains.

GC’s 1822 to Sunderland was cancelled after the open access operator suffered from reliability issues with its Class 180s, caused by “unforeseen electric issues and air-conditioning problems” during the recent hot weather.

On July 8, GC cancelled eight trains, and partially cancelled a further two. LNER Managing Director David Horne tweeted it had accepted 1,100 GC and Hull Trains passengers on its trains throughout the day, but could not do so for GC’s 1822 Sunderland passengers because the LNER services at that time were very busy.

GC told RAIL: “Arrangements for carriage of customers during disruption are well-established. This has not changed and has been used to good effect over the last few days. Where the request is made on an ad hoc basis due to unforeseen operational issues affecting one operator, as was the case for Grand Central (rather than when universal mutual ticket acceptance is invoked), the other operator will consider the overall impact and whether they have capacity to accommodate the additional customers.

“In exceptional circumstances they may have to decline the request. This was the case on Sunday evening. The situation was very challenging for both operators and their customers and staff, and the process for requesting and granting carriage of other operators’ customers remains unchanged. Customers who purchased new tickets for their journey north to York have been informed how to claim full reimbursement.”

The reliability of fellow open access operator Hull Trains’ Class 180s has also declined in recent weeks, with a number of cancellations on its trains.