Travelled to Edinburgh today on Virgin Trains. On the outward journey, I got an email from Virgin telling me my return train (the 14:00 from Edinburgh) was cancelled, and advising me I would be permitted to get either the 13:30 or 14:30 instead, neither of which stop at Morpeth. I later discovered Virgin were arranging for the 14:30 to make an extra stop at Morpeth. A pity the email didn’t mention that. Though even this would still get me back to Morpeth over half an hour late, as would the earlier train, which would involve going to Newcastle then travelling back. As it happened, I finished my business in Edinburgh early so asked if I could get a train before the 13:30 but was told “no”. Maybe the problem is that Virgin have no-one with authority to make that decision at Waverley station. So, I got the ultra-crowded 14:30, arriving back 45 minutes late, and claimed the Delay Repay instead. At Waverley station, there were clear announcements saying the 14:30 would also be making additional stops at Doncaster and Peterborough (other stations the 14:00 was due to stop at) so passengers for those stations all got on too. But once on board, the Conductor missed these stations out when he announced where the train would call. However the Virgin on board wifi website landing page, which gives running details of the train you are on, clearly showed the train would in fact stop at Doncaster and Peterborough and many passengers for those stations pointed this out to the Conductor as he passed through the train. The Conductor remained adamant the train would not stop at these places. So, a Christmas pantomime of “Oh yes it is” from passengers waving their phones in the air, followed by “Oh no it isn’t” from the Conductor ensued, still unresolved when I left the train at Morpeth, noting the Morpeth CIS was not showing this replacement service at all. Passengers waiting for the new 15:15 southbound had presumably just seen from the CIS the train was cancelled and not been advised a replacement service would be stopping 45 minutes later, and had presumably given up and gone home. Here at SENRUG, we acknowledge that disruption does happen from time to time, but we expect the train companies to be better at managing the communication of information to passengers than this.
