Passenger Voice August 2015: Case Study
30 July 2015
Mrs N travelled with her husband and four year old grandson from Walton-on-Thames to Southampton Airport, via a change at Woking.
Before arriving at Woking, an announcement was made telling passengers that due to signal failure the service would have to terminate early at Weybridge, where a replacement bus service would be made available.
When they arrived at Weybridge station, Mrs N and her family looked for a member of staff but weren’t able to find anyone and there was no sign of the replacement bus service that had been announced. So, not feeling able to risk missing their flight from Southampton Airport, they decided to take a taxi which cost them £145.
When Mrs N contacted Transport Focus, we approached South West Trains on her behalf to ask if they’d refund the taxi fare, bearing in mind that they didn’t want to miss their flight. They’d had difficulties sourcing replacement buses, so under these circumstances South West Trains agreed to issue a cheque for the whole amount, as a gesture of goodwill.
