Today I travelled from Morpeth to Leeds, but with the violent storm the day before and overhead lines down between Newcastle and Edinburgh, some disruption could be expected. Well done to LNER who sent me an email the night before telling me my booked train, the 11:29 from Newcastle to York, was cancelled. The email said I could travel on alternative LNER trains but failed to mention that all their trains from Scotland were cancelled, only those that started at Newcastle were still running. Neither did it clarify whether my advance ticket endorsed “booked train only” would be honoured by TPE, with whom I was scheduled to travel from York on to Leeds. In the end I joined the 11:22 CrossCountry service from Morpeth, showed my ticket to the conductor and asked “will you let me stay on this train all the way to Leeds?” “Of course,”, he answered. “There is disruption, so we are accepting LNER tickets”. Which meant I left Morpeth later, arrived at Leeds earlier, and had a direct train instead of having to change at Newcastle and York. Now, why couldn’t the email from LNER had told me I could do that? Verdict: LNER = 7/10. CrossCountry = 10/10.
