SWT offering to pay for taxis (1st August)

[theageofthetra]

Must be pretty bad?

https://twitter.com/SW_Help/status/1554230065675763712

Due to large scale disruption across the South Western Railway network customers are authorised to book their own taxi.

In order to claim a refund you will need:
- Proof of a valid ticket
- Receipt for the taxi

Please email these details to [email protected]

 

[Bletchleyite]

Makes a lot of sense. It's far easier for people to get their own Ubers etc than for the railway to have to organise loads of them. It's not like the days when you'd need to find a payphone to do it so ordering en-masse would be easier.

 

[zwk500]

A remarkably sensible decision, and giving proper confirmation like this means staff can now give passengers clear advice (unlike usually when there's a problem with a staff member telling people to book taxis and claim it back but then the claim is denied as control never agreed to it).

 

[duncanp]

The incident is a person struck by a train between Weybridge and New Malden, which screws up a large proportion of the network.

At least they are being honest about the level and duration of the disruption, and have arranged ticket acceptance on alternative routes.

Disruption is always regrettable, but in this case it is not the fault of Network Rail or South Western Railway.

 

[Meglos]

Looks like whatever the issue was Surbiton was ground zero. With no stopping trains.

The Hampton Court services were running on-stop from Berrylands to Thames Ditton, and the Woking services were operating non-stop Wimbledon to Esher

 

[Kite159]

I've seen it happen before with SWR where the train service has fallen over for whatever reason. Gets passengers moving without the hassle of trying to contact customer help points.

 

[Phil R]

Looks like whatever the issue was Surbiton was ground zero. With no stopping trains.

The Hampton Court services were running on-stop from Berrylands to Thames Ditton, and the Woking services were operating non-stop Wimbledon to Esher

It was. 1645 Pompey-Waterloo (444041 + 444014) seemed to be the affected train (now just at Clapham 204 late btw). It was at a stand just east of Surbiton and lots of coverall outfits and hi-viz at the country end of the up fast / platform 2 at Surbiton station about an hour after the incident, as I passed by on a delayed down train having sat east of Wimbledon for an hour.
From my perspective the incident seemed to handled as well as could be reasonably expected, and getting home 75 late was a result imo. Well done the staff concerned and going back to the earlier posts, yes the sort your own taxi seems eminently sensible. My down train and the one before were platformed at Wimbledon and many disembarked off mine, although in hindsight sitting tight would have been the better option.

 

[Adam Williams]

Props to SWR. Wish other TOCs would take a similar approach

 

[Hophead]

The offer though appears to be restricted to those who get their information via Twitter, since neither National Rail nor SWR themselves via their website make mention of taxis, listing just rail & bus alternatives.

 

[richw]

Makes a lot of sense. It's far easier for people to get their own Ubers etc than for the railway to have to organise loads of them. It's not like the days when you'd need to find a payphone to do it so ordering en-masse would be easier.

SWR would only be able to organise with their registered suppliers and purchase orders processed first.
Whereas reimbursing customers booking their own will not require and of these lengthy processes to be followed.
It’s definitely best for customers as long as they can afford to pay the taxi and wait for their reimbursement.

 

[zwk500]

The offer though appears to be restricted to those who get their information via Twitter, since neither National Rail nor SWR themselves via their website make mention of taxis, listing just rail & bus alternatives.

Presumably SWR staff have also been made aware of the offer as well.

It’s definitely best for customers as long as they can afford to pay the taxi and wait for their reimbursement.

Or can get a party together to split the costs. Or, better yet, jump in a taxi somebody else is happy to cover for!

 

[WizCastro197]

Hello
My Bournemouth-Waterloo Train was terminated at Basingstoke after already 15 minutes of Delay at Southampton Ctl due to a police search of the train.
It left Southampton 15 minutes late and when we arrived in Basingstoke we were told that “Emergency Services were dealing with an incident outside surbiton”. After about 10 minutes an Exeter train to Waterloo turned up and we were told it was going via Reading as that was the only option to reach London. So the Exeter Train was diverted and Terminated at Reading. Real time Trains doesn’t show this change form when I checked a few hours ago. Managed to get a train from Reading straight to my destination without having to change at Clapham

Hello
My Bournemouth-Waterloo Train was terminated at Basingstoke after already 15 minutes of Delay at Southampton Ctl due to a police search of the train.
It left Southampton 15 minutes late and when we arrived in Basingstoke we were told that “Emergency Services were dealing with an incident outside surbiton”. After about 10 minutes an Exeter train to Waterloo turned up and we were told it was going via Reading as that was the only option to reach London. So the Exeter Train was diverted and Terminated at Reading. Real time Trains doesn’t show this change form when I checked a few hours ago. Managed to get a train from Reading straight to my destination without having to change at Clapham

I Caught the 17:22 From Bournemouth then the 19:01 from Basingstoke which left at 19:16

I have tried to claim delay repay but from a phone it’s very complicated because a window appears with Ooops we need confirmation and you can’t click off it.

Busy Day of disruption
But thoughts are out to the family of the person who passed away

 

[DarloRich]

well that seems like a very sensible approach to a problem.

 

[Bletchleyite]

SWR would only be able to organise with their registered suppliers and purchase orders processed first.
Whereas reimbursing customers booking their own will not require and of these lengthy processes to be followed.
It’s definitely best for customers as long as they can afford to pay the taxi and wait for their reimbursement.

Which most people can. That then keeps their staff free to arrange them for the small number who can't. So better service for everyone.

 

[noddingdonkey]

Being cynical, but I imagine the fact that NR would be picking up the tab made it an easier decision to implement?

 

[zwk500]

Being cynical, but I imagine the fact that NR would be picking up the tab made it an easier decision to implement?

Cynicism misplaced - NR would be paying SWR the same amount of Schedule 8 payments in any event, as it's related to the delay minutes and cancellations and not connected to how SWR choose to manage their passengers.

 

[Watershed]

Being cynical, but I imagine the fact that NR would be picking up the tab made it an easier decision to implement?

They won't be picking up the tab for taxis.

 

[mrmartin]

Seems ridiculously generous to me. Some of these taxis will run into the £100s for a £20-30 ticket. At least when the railway organises them they tend to group people together so the cost isn't quite as eye watering. What if someone takes a 4x surge Uber back from Waterloo to basingstoke for £500? Is that going to be refunded?

I imagine SWR is offering to be so lax as the taxpayer will pick up any eventual tab under the new system? So there is absolutely no incentive for them to control costs like this?

I can see these "rights" of overnight accom/taxis etc quickly being curtailed if more TOCs realise they can do this at no cost to themselves.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Seems ridiculously generous to me. Some of these taxis will run into the £100s for a £20-30 ticket. At least when the railway organises them they tend to group people together so the cost isn't quite as eye watering. What if someone takes a 4x surge Uber back from Waterloo to basingstoke for £500? Is that going to be refunded?

In practice commuters are a helpful lot to their own kind and are fairly likely to group together anyway, if only because it's easier to get one taxi than three.

Some may well not even claim it from the TOC but instead claim expenses from their employer if it's easier.

 

[mrmartin]

In practice commuters are a helpful lot to their own kind and are fairly likely to group together anyway, if only because it's easier to get one taxi than three.

Some may well not even claim it from the TOC but instead claim expenses from their employer if it's easier.

I really don't know how many employers that would refund a £500 taxi because the trains were off. Regardless I cannot see it being valid for tax purposes as it would be normal commuting.

I can see pre Uber people sharing in the taxi queue, but now everyone uses apps they will be all over the place and hard to group together. And the fares will be absoluely eye watering if everyone is trying to pick up from Waterloo at the same with surge pricing.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I really don't know how many employers that would refund a £500 taxi because the trains were off.

Some would, particularly for the likes of "C-suite" (i.e. CEO, CFO, COO etc) people (who also, if on telephone number salaries, may consider it simply not worth the effort of claiming!)

Regardless I cannot see it being valid for tax purposes as it would be normal commuting.

It won't be for all of them, but even so this doesn't bar a company from paying an expense, they can if they want, they just have to "gross it up" i.e. pay more so as to cover the tax and NI on it as well, and pay it through the payroll rather than separate bank transfer. My employer has a process for doing that in the employee handbook. Rarely are our contracts long enough not to be temporary workplaces, but it can happen if e.g. one member of staff gets several central London contracts in a row, and in that case if they can't avoid it by swapping people around to different contracts the expenses are still paid but grossed up so the tax is correctly paid on them.

Companies very often say "that's not claimable as it'd be taxable" which is just an excuse for "it is outside our policy to pay that". They can pay literally anything they like, they just have to pay tax on it too if it's outside the HMRC rules for tax-free expenses.

I can see pre Uber people sharing in the taxi queue, but now everyone uses apps they will be all over the place and hard to group together.

They'll be grouped together on the Waterloo concourse and will recognise people from their daily train even if they never talk to them normally!

And the fares will be absoluely eye watering if everyone is trying to pick up from Waterloo at the same with surge pricing.

I'm not sure why that's their problem.

 

[zwk500]

I can see pre Uber people sharing in the taxi queue, but now everyone uses apps they will be all over the place and hard to group together.

Lots of apps allow you to tick a 'pool' option, and even then when there's disruption people see others ordering taxis and ask where they're heading. Once they have a taxi, people quite often give a shout to nearby people, if only to split the cost.

And the fares will be absoluely eye watering if everyone is trying to pick up from Waterloo at the same with surge pricing.

Again, not a lot that can be done and ultimately it's not the passenger's problem

Some would, particularly for the likes of "C-suite" (i.e. CEO, CFO, COO etc) people (who also, if on telephone number salaries, may consider it simply not worth the effort of claiming!)

Funnily enough, In my experience people with oodles of money have it because they never miss an opportunity to avoid spending it!

 

[TEW]

Seems ridiculously generous to me. Some of these taxis will run into the £100s for a £20-30 ticket. At least when the railway organises them they tend to group people together so the cost isn't quite as eye watering. What if someone takes a 4x surge Uber back from Waterloo to basingstoke for £500? Is that going to be refunded?

I imagine SWR is offering to be so lax as the taxpayer will pick up any eventual tab under the new system? So there is absolutely no incentive for them to control costs like this?

I can see these "rights" of overnight accom/taxis etc quickly being curtailed if more TOCs realise they can do this at no cost to themselves.

This has been standard SWR policy in major disruption for a while now. They were really struggling to book taxis via their usual supplier late last year, especially in major disruption.

 

[Horizon22]

This is not the first time I’ve seen SWR (or indeed other TOCs do this). It’s not the go to option straight away, but late on a Sunday night the railway centrally can only muster so much and trying to arrange mass transport and taxis takes time away from staff who could be assisting passengers in other ways.

Post-lockdowns trying to source taxis and buses has become much harder as there had been a staffing crisis as many drivers went to the HGV world.

They'll be grouped together on the Waterloo concourse and will recognise people from their daily train even if they never talk to them normally!

Indeed - staff will normally group people together anyway so they can provide control with a general idea of numbers to various destinations.

 

[rjames87]

Presumably doesn’t come cheap when they have to arrange buses at moments notice either. Obviously will be cheaper than taxis though.

 

[zwk500]

Presumably doesn’t come cheap when they have to arrange buses at moments notice either. Obviously will be cheaper than taxis though.

Taxis are more readily available though, and at the end of a long workday getting 4 people moving every 5-10 minutes (at least at first) eases pressure better than telling them to wait an hour for the bus to turn up.

 

[Lockwood]

Having seen the number of passengers stuck at Weybridge at an incident at night many years ago, I can only imagine the scale of disruption from one earlier in the day.

 

[Chrisgr31]

I bumped in to a friend this morning who was caught up in all this. He said he had ended up staying in a Premier Inn and was sending the bill to SWT. He said it was impossible to book a taxi or Uber. I didnt ask about the cost of a Premier Inn

 

[johntea]

Makes a lot of sense. It's far easier for people to get their own Ubers etc than for the railway to have to organise loads of them. It's not like the days when you'd need to find a payphone to do it so ordering en-masse would be easier.

Talking of Uber I wonder if SWT (or whoever is coughing up) will be happy to reimburse any passengers in full deciding to book one of those during their inevitable 'surge' periods which are at times completely crazy (sorry I see this has already been mentioned above!)

For example on Saturday at Leeds station I needed to book a taxi (17 mile trip), at one point Uber were quoting just short of...SEVENTY POUNDS(!)

In the end I luckily managed to book one of the local companies who did it for £28

 

[Fiyero]

My friend, his 2 kids and I were caught up in this. I didn't fancy stumping up the £150-200 to cover a taxi from Waterloo to Eastleigh with all 4 of us squeezed in so checked ticket acceptance was in place and we dashed to Paddington to come back via Reading. Luckily there were connections as it was getting late! The little boy was thrilled we got to go on a Diesel (Crosscountry) train too!
It is great that they are putting things like this on Twitter which can be screenshotted!