Quote:
Originally Posted by hairyhandedfool
Hence the assuming you bought your ticket before hand bit.
But in order for people to be compensated, the number of people left behind would not be enough. It would only serve as an indicator of how busy that particular service was, it could not take into account normal loadings, as services were delayed or even cancelled.
Imagine I arrive at a station to board my train, which is delayed, I see the previous train leaving filled to the brim and ten people left behind. I decide to claim I was getting that service along with the ten people who were actually left behind. If the company decides to pay out based on the conductors report, who do they compensate?
You can't expect a company to pay to anyone who claims based on a conductor saying it was full but ignoring the numbers involved, particularly if the next train, by any operator, is within an hour.
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The point I'm trying to make is that, while any new compensation scheme that I suggested is open to abuse, the current delay/cancellation compensation arrangement is also open to abuse. Any way of trying to totally prevent any abuse would not work at small unstaffed stations. But why should anyone have to wait on a platform for an hour for the next train, when they arrived in time for the previous train and not be compensated for it?
You mentioned the next train may be a different operator. That's precisely why consistency is needed in passenger's charters. If an East Midlands Train service between Manchester and Sheffield is cancelled and you have to catch a TP Express one half an hour later, you won't get any compensation. If it was the TP Express train that was cancelled then you would get compensation.
You also need to remember that TOCs promise to offer compensation for someone who made a seat reservation and had to stand. That could create more complications than my suggestion. If someone claimed that someone else was sat in their seat and the conductor did not make his or her way through the train, what would happen then?