The road from A to B can be strewn with legal hurdles. Send your queries to Russell Jones & Walker, Solicitors, c/o A to B magazine
EXHIBIT A: “A few weeks ago I arrived at Birmingham New Street station to catch a Virgin Cross-Country train home after a hard day’s work. At 6pm, the train was packed, but I was lucky enough to find an un-booked seat at a table with three other commuters from Birmingham. At the next stop, a group of girls got on and said they had reserved our seats. Sure enough they had reservation tickets with our coach and seat numbers on, but the electronic seat displays still very clearly said that our seats were not booked. When we refused to move, the guard gave the girls complimentary First Class seats, but who was in the right?”
William Johnson, Banbury
EDITOR’S NOTE: Unlike other systems,Virgin’s at-seat electronic display is updated by satellite while the train is underway. According to staff we’ve spoken to, it ‘often goes wrong’.
Fortunately it appears that everyone affected by this mix-up managed to get a seat and did not have to stand for the entire length of the journey.
A ticket with a seat number gives no more guarantee of a seat than an ordinary ticket.Virgin says that where a person does have a seat reservation, but that seat has not been reserved for them, they will issue some form of compensation to the inconvenienced passenger, provided the passenger retains their ticket.Virgin regard the seat reservation service as a complimentary service but does not consider their passengers to be entitled to those seats, even when the seat has been reserved.
Point 3.3 of Virgin’s Passenger’s Charter states the following:
“If, for any reason, we cannot honour your seat reservation, we will try to find you another seat on the train. If this is not possible and you have to stand for more than fifteen minutes of the journey, we will give you National Rail vouchers to the value of 5% or more of the price paid for that journey which you can use when you make a future train journey.”
So whilst they do not guarantee to give you the seat that you specifically booked, they do promise to make every effort to provide you with a seat of some kind when a reservation has been made.You were therefore right not to move from your seat. Since the seat did not give any indication of the reservation, you were entitled to sit in what you believed to be an unreserved seat.
EXHIBIT B: “Earlier this year we were due to travel by Scotrail Sleeper to Fort William. At 4pm on the day before we were due to travel, we got a phone call to say there would be no service because of a guard’s strike. It was quite an upsetting experience having to sort out other travel arrangements for us all: me (six months pregnant), my husband, and our five-year-old daughter.
In the event, we had to buy extra train tickets and stay an extra night in a b&b, or we would have lost our entire holiday. On our return we wrote to Scotrail to see if we could reclaim the extra expenses – a total of £82.50. Scotrail said they were not liable for disruption caused by industrial action. Is this right?”
Allison Taylor, Norwich
…they would be prepared to refund you for any unused tickets… and review claims in a fair minded way…
Unfortunately it does appear that Scotrail is right. By purchasing your ticket from Scotrail you effectively agreed to their terms and conditions of travel.These terms and conditions are contained in Scotrail’s Passenger Charter, a copy of which can be found at all stations, or on the internet.The charter includes the following term:
“If the train you planned to catch is delayed or cancelled and you decide not to travel, we will give you a full refund if you return your ticket to any ticket office, if the ticket office is in a position to do so.”
I spoke to the Scotrail Customer Relations Department who said that in a situation like the one described above, they would be prepared to refund you for any unused tickets. In addition to this, Scotrail offer to do the following:
“Over and above fulfiling our obligation under our Passenger Charter, we will review claims as a result of delays, disruptions or poor service in a fair minded way.”
Although they therefore offer to review your situation, they are not required to provide any form of compensation for cancelled trains resulting from industrial action. This does not mean that you are precluded from claiming back your expenses, but it does mean that the only guarantee that you are entitled to is that your claim will be reviewed in a fair minded way. Unfortunately you are therefore unlikely to obtain the remedy that you are looking for.
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