Transport User Voice January 2024 – Helping passengers

20 December 2023

Poor advice and Railcard renewal

Our caseworkers have been busy this month helping passengers to resolve problems they have had when travelling by train.

Poor advice and out of pocket

After being advised by a member of West Midlands Trains staff of the best ticket option for her journey, Ms P was charged an excess fare as the ticket was not valid for the journey.

Ms P accepts that the ticket was not valid but was unhappy with West Midlands Trains who repeatedly failed to address her concerns about the poor advice she’d received. Ms P asked Transport Focus for help and after an appeal by one of our caseworkers West Midlands Trains agreed that its handling of Ms P’s complaint had been very poor.

West Midlands Trains offered her a full refund by way of apology. Ms P has thanked Transport Focus and our caseworker for their help and support.

Railcard renewal

Mrs L renewed her Railcard early and was given a card that was valid from the date of purchase rather than the day the existing card expired.

Mrs L was very unhappy with the way her initial contact with Railcard had been handled. Transport Focus appealed stating that that Mrs L was at a financial loss as she had ‘lost’ days on her card due to the issue date. Railcards agreed and said that a fault in its system meant that some renewals were being treated as new purchases.

Railcards has apologised that this was not picked up in Mrs L’s original contact with them and have corrected the issue date on the card and offered a goodwill gesture. Mrs L has thanked Transport Focus and our caseworker for the efforts made on her behalf.

 

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