The RDS Passenger Committee is collecting examples of how the new Routeing Guide is working out in practice.
We have already identified some disturbing cases:
A member travelling from Gatwick to London by one of the three operators on the route lost a piece of property on the train.
When he reported it at his destination station, staff did not want to know. They suggested it was not their responsibility as they were not employees of the operating company.
The passenger committee is taking up the matter with the Regulator. This is the sort of "buck passing" we warned about when franchising was mooted.
Another passenger from the North of England travelling to Ipswich changed at Peterborough on to a Liverpool-Norwich cross-country service operated by Central Trains.
She hoped for a fast comfortable journey by class 158 Sprinter to Norwich and then an equally swift InterCity run down to Ipswich.
But she was told her ticket was not valid via Norwich, and that she would have to get out at Ely and wait an hour for the next Anglia Railways train to Ipswich. If she continued via Norwich she would be liable to a surcharge.
You can email Railwatch editor Ray King at editor@railwatch.org.uk (or just click on this link)
or e-mail Lloyd Butler at butler@argonet.co.uk with comments about the Railwatch Web pages
RiscPC