LNER / Scotrail ticket acceptance

[williamn]

I travel Aberdeen to London and vice versa every few months and in the (seemingly frequent, including today’s 16.00 to Aberdeen) case of disruption between Edinburgh and Aberdeen LNER seem to only ever give the option of road transport or another LNER service, rather than arranging acceptance on one of Scotrail’s fairly frequent Edinburgh / Aberdeen trains. Why is this?

Scotrail staff incidentally seem happy to accept the ticket even without official acceptance in place.

Generally I find LNER to be a very good operator but this seems like a very customer unfriendly practice. If I’d wanted to sit on a coach for 3 hours, I’d have booked one.

 

[800001]

I travel Aberdeen to London and vice versa every few months and in the (seemingly frequent, including today’s 16.00 to Aberdeen) case of disruption between Edinburgh and Aberdeen LNER seem to only ever give the option of road transport or another LNER service, rather than arranging acceptance on one of Scotrail’s fairly frequent Edinburgh / Aberdeen trains. Why is this?

Scotrail staff incidentally seem happy to accept the ticket even without official acceptance in place.

Generally I find LNER to be a very good operator but this seems like a very customer unfriendly practice. If I’d wanted to sit on a coach for 3 hours, I’d have booked one.

LNER will approach Scotrail for acceptance each time they start/terminate short at Edinburgh.

Based on passenger numbers, Scotrail will decide yes or no.

 

[hexagon789]

The usual reason is lack of capacity on ScotRail services; while most Edinburgh to Aberdeen and v-v should be HSTs, frequently many are 170s or sometimes 158s.

A 9-car Azuma is quite a lot of people to accommodate on even a 170, let alone a single 158.

The afternoon services are usually worse as they are busier from London and from Edinburgh of course.

 

[800001]

Edit - Ticket acceptance now in place with ScotRail on 1A97 2131 Edinburgh to Aberdeen.

 

[hexagon789]

Edit - Ticket acceptance now in place with ScotRail on 1A97 2131 Edinburgh to Aberdeen.

That's booked 170 anyway, and usually not too busy.

 

[MontyP]

The usual reason is lack of capacity on ScotRail services; while most Edinburgh to Aberdeen and v-v should be HSTs, frequently many are 170s or sometimes 158s.

A 9-car Azuma is quite a lot of people to accommodate on even a 170, let alone a single 158.

The afternoon services are usually worse as they are busier from London and from Edinburgh of course.

How busy are LNER services north of Edinburgh?

 

[Gaelan]

I've never seen LNER run coaches to Fife - even when Aberdeen/Dundee get coaches, there's always some fine print somewhere (often added only a few minutes before we reach Waverley!) telling Fife passengers to get the ScotRail service.

 

[800001]

I've never seen LNER run coaches to Fife - even when Aberdeen/Dundee get coaches, there's always some fine print somewhere (often added only a few minutes before we reach Waverley!) telling Fife passengers to get the ScotRail service.

Coaches tonight, and like most times when they run buses are calling at all the stations LNER are scheduled to do!

There is also Edinburgh to Aberdeen direct, Edinburgh-Dundee-Edinburgh direct, and other combinations.

The times when customers for the Fife region are told to get Scotrail is when sourcing coaches proves unsuccessful.

 

[hexagon789]

How busy are LNER services north of Edinburgh?

The two evening departures seem to load well usually.

 

[Gaelan]

Coaches tonight, and like most times when they run buses are calling at all the stations LNER are scheduled to do!

There is also Edinburgh to Aberdeen direct, Edinburgh-Dundee-Edinburgh direct, and other combinations.

The times when customers for the Fife region are told to get Scotrail is when sourcing coaches proves unsuccessful.

Ah! What I described has happened every time I've been caught up in it, but evidently not universal (Storm Babet and post-Stonehaven) - I stand corrected.

 

[Watershed]

LNER will approach Scotrail for acceptance each time they start/terminate short at Edinburgh.

Based on passenger numbers, Scotrail will decide yes or no.

But if ScotRail say no to ticket acceptance under commercial arrangements, it's incumbent on LNER to issue passengers with Any Permitted tickets to allow them to use ScotRail services, whether that's using the corporate credit card or by issuing zero-fare tickets at their Travel Centres or onboard.

Telling people to wait for the next LNER service or to endure the delay (let alone inconvenience) associated with a coach is simply not on, though sadly the ECML operators seem to have a particular habit of fobbing passengers off in this manner. As a bare minimum they should be guaranteeing passengers that any additional fares paid will be reimbursed.

 

[800001]

But if ScotRail say no to ticket acceptance under commercial arrangements, it's incumbent on LNER to issue passengers with Any Permitted tickets to allow them to use ScotRail services, whether that's using the corporate credit card or by issuing zero-fare tickets at their Travel Centres or onboard.

Telling people to wait for the next LNER service or to endure the delay (let alone inconvenience) associated with a coach is simply not on, though sadly the ECML operators seem to have a particular habit of fobbing passengers off in this manner. As a bare minimum they should be guaranteeing passengers that any additional fares paid will be reimbursed.

What others TOCs do that!? Not heard of any other operator in the country issuing any permitted tickets when a service terminates short or is cancelled.

 

[Watershed]

What others TOCs do that!? Not heard of any other operator in the country issuing any permitted tickets when a service terminates short or is cancelled.

Grand Central used to do so in their early days. And a lot of other TOCs are better about arranging ticket acceptance so it doesn't come into play, but even on the occasions where they fall short, that's no excuse for LNER not to abide by their licence obligations.

 

[williamn]

Grand Central used to do so in their early days. And a lot of other TOCs are better about arranging ticket acceptance so it doesn't come into play, but even on the occasions where they fall short, that's no excuse for LNER not to abide by their licence obligations.

Indeed, I've very rarely had a problem with ticket acceptance not being arranged with any other operator, and it's particularly irritating on a route where LNER have only 4 trains a day to be told an 'option' is to wait for the next one!