Train cancelled - help!

[Sleeepdeprived]

My 5.19am train to Waterloo has been cancelled and I absolutely need to get into London this morning so slightly stressing! The next train to Waterloo in 2 hours has also been cancelled.

I rarely travel by train - does anyone know if I can use my Waterloo ticket for the Paddington train seeing as the train was cancelled? All phone lines are closed this early in the morning so hoping someone on MN is awake and knows 🤞

It’s usually a thing that if your train is cancelled then you can travel to other lindon stations

Amazing, thank you @FlamingoFloss. Will give the Paddington line a go - I’ve headed back home because it’s not for another hour but will head back out for it.

Yes you can.

So upsetting! I would get on any train you can and have it with anyone who says your ticket is not valid. It’s not your fault and I’m sure you’d be fine on a different train. Hope you get there ok.

Just take any train. I am sick of the train issues! It’s an on going nightmare. We fly now. Although flight was also cancelled yesterday

Is the Paddington train the same train company? If it is then it’ll be fine. If it’s not then it will depend on whether other train companies are accepting their tickets. Sometimes they do, sometimes not, depending on why the trains are cancelled. We’re experts in such things thanks to the ridiculousness of transpennine express and northern trains!

Even if they don’t accept it you can get a refund for the cancelled train, but what a pain.

When our Grand Central trains were cancelled we could use the tickets on LNER, they must have a mutual agreement as they’re unconnected usually.

That was good of them, all the LNER trains I have travelled on usually make an announcement saying that no other ticket except an LNER ticket is valid on the journey so if anyone holds a ticket for another rail company they will be made to leave the train.

OP, just ask before you board the train. I’ve been in this situation a few times and I’ve found that most other rail companies will allow you on board their train if your train has been cancelled. I got on one train a few weeks ago as my train had been cancelled and the guy who checked my tickets told me my ticket was invalid on their service so I just said “yes I know because my train was cancelled”, he just turned a blind eye and let me travel.

I don’t know what is happening at the moment with rail services. It’s been dire, so many delays and cancellations with all rail companies and it has been like this for almost 2 years now. It’s just getting beyond a joke.

Hope you get there OK and it was really genuinely necessary and not because someone full of their own importance said so.

Definitely check with Great Western staff, they usually say it is fine.

Also screen shot your new train times so you can claim your delay repay. Judging by your comments, you'll get all of your ticket cost back😁👍. You'll need to do the claim through SWR.

Oh yes transpennine and Northern are notorious for it and seem to be the worst offenders. Unfortunately I have to travel to Manchester a lot so I have been a victim of their delays and cancellations many times!!

I’d just get on the train and show my ticket. I wouldn’t ask upfront.

What the what??

Hope you got the other train OP. For future reference and in case helpful to anyone else, the train operating company's Twitter account is usually helpful in this scenario - they'll usually explain ticket acceptance and help you find an alternative route

IKR? I read thst comment and checked OP said train not plane I mean environmentally we are supposed to be using more public transport?

I read it as a comment on bosses and high-handed decision-making. I thought Llyn was hoping that OP wasn't being put under unnecessary pressure by her bosses to be somewhere.

Screenshot/take a photo of the board to ‘prove’ your train was cancelled - the last time mine was I got on another train and as I left the station the original train was running again! Luckily even though I was by now on another operator’s train I didn’t have any issues. It was odd anyway as the original train wasn’t running due to an ‘obstruction’ but the train I caught used the exact same route, it just wasn’t direct!

I’ve given up buying my tickets through SWR as the process for getting a refund is complicated (I haven’t managed yet, but the only time I tried I gave up, it was only a £6 fare though). I buy my SWR tickets through Trainline now, when one got cancelled recently the app buzzed me to tell me it was cancelled, then I got a message telling me I could get a refund, all I had to do was click a button and the money came back within a week (I was able to get a lift instead). The SWR app is rubbish. Chances are the staff at the stations won’t know what’s happening either, they never seem to get told any more than the passengers. Hope you get there OK.

Hope you get it sorted and make it to London. The trains are an absolute joke at the moment - I used to catch one to London (in the SW) but due to strikes and just unpredictability I won’t use them for the foreseeable future. It’s such a shame.

Thanks everyone. I’m on the Paddington train now but haven’t had my ticket checked yet! Fingers crossed they accept it…

Ticket’s been accepted!

😊

I had to read that comment a few times too. I could be wrong but I’m taking it to mean that they mean op gets there ok and that they hope the cancellation was really necessary and not because someone full of their own importance has decided to cancel it

@leafinthewind yes I was having a go at bosses who have meetings that could be done remotely or not at all, and put pressure on people to attend.

But not every work 'meeting' can be constructively done online, especially when so many people refuse to switch their cameras on. Sometimes meeting up in person is far more productive.