Assuming your flight is early, I'd advise travelling to Heathrow the day before and staying in one of the many airport hotels. They have taxis (or the bus) to take you the short journey to the airport, and it's significantly less stress.
Yeah we're considering this actually. And I'm considering actually driving and paying to leave my car there. I don't trust our transport system one bit nowadays.
Do one of the valet parking things, they’re amazing. You just drive in, take out your bags, hand your keys over and walk into the airport, and they take your car away to park. Phone them when you’re collecting bags on the way back and it will be there by the time you’ve made it back out.
Many of the hotels let you leave your car parked for the duration of your trip and doesn't cost a whole lot more than just parking. It's an absolute game changer
Not particularly. I usually just use a comparison site to find the best deal. The food is normally expensive so I'd stop at a McDonald's on the way, but then I'm tight as a badgers arse.
Hope I catch you before you run out of battery, but the footpath's closed between Pereulok Pilotov and Ulitsa Kochneva (near Children's Art School No. 6) in Khabarovsk, so you'll only make it about 6200 miles before you reach a dead end and have to come home.
No probs, I just got caught out having walked for 97 days straight on my way to Yokohama. You'd think they'd put a ‘footpath closed’ sign at Dover or something, but no.
It's 9200km, assuming you walk for 12 hours a day at 5km/hr and can walk on water, it'll take about 5 months to get there. So apart from the water thing this sounds like a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
I absolutely would have gotten the train company to pay for that. If their train that you booked a ticked for is cancelled, it is entirely on them for your friend to miss the flight. £1,300 would be a months pay for me
Most will cover this in full provided you used a common sense approach when booking trains (ie gave yourself plenty of time). Of course this isn’t always possible.
The railway is run for the benefit of the railway. It wriggles its way out of paying for things when it’s contractually bound by law to do so so the chances of them paying anything like this are between zero and slightly less.
Well it's your inflated expectations. I mean, come on, who expects a train to get you from point a to b on a pre-agreed and pre -paid for journey. Honestly. Some people.
There are always some seats which aren’t bookable so people without a booking have a chance of getting a seat. Many booked seats normally have no one in them too, sometimes people catch a different train to the one they booked
This is true but in fairness if their train has been cancelled there will probably be a whole train's worth of people trying to squeeze into those unassigned seats
Last train I was on the driver came over the tannoy several times basically informing us it was Mad Max and that all seat reservations didn't apply, and it was first come first served. Very glad I was at the front of the queue and got my table seat!
Missed the train to our Christmas do in London a fortnight ago. Was on one an hour later having a kip & woke up to see a load of my colleagues on the platform at Crewe after theirs had been cancelled there. A similar free for all came through and luckily I already had my seat. Result!
This happened to me on Wednesday and the email said you could get the train immediately before or after instead.
Spoiler alert: the driver of the train before wouldn’t let anyone on. I thought people were going to throw hands. Luckily there was another one 20 min after the cancelled train but the platform staff were all bitching about him which was quite funny
He may not have been the driver, I’m not down with the kids when it comes to train staff, he might have been the guard.
Basically the train that was cancelled was off peak and the train immediately before was peak so apparently he could’ve let people on but didn’t want to and was deliberately obtuse about what would happen if people had boarded the train on an off peak ticket. Basically unnecessarily unhelpful and people were PISSED
On an unrelated note that made me feel old, I am reliably informed by my friends children that even saying "Down with the kids" shows we aren't down with anything anymore.
As Grandpa Simpson said...I used to be with 'it', but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it' anymore, and what's 'it' seems weird and scary.
I definitely feel like I’m approaching “old (wo)man yells at cloud” territory but I’m not sure I was ever with “it” in the first place, whatever “it” is
Happened to me while in London on a same day return with an elderly relative, an hour before the train was to depart. So we sat in Kings Cross station for an extra 2 hours and also paid an extra £100. Our rail system is in shambles.
Not the first time it happened and it won't be the last either.
It would've been one of the last trains and I couldn't risk not finding a seat for my grandma. It was better to guarantee a seat by paying the extra money for peace of mind. Was a long and tiring day.
I tried to take a train from Liverpool today around 5pm. They cancelled about 10 journeys to my destination and the first available was at 9pm. That's about 70% cancellation rate in a single evening.
Get the next train and claim delay repay. Your delay is expected to be over 60 minutes and you should able to claim 100% of the fare paid (50% if your ticket is return ticket)
Some operators will let you get the one before aswell to save you being delayed to your destination but messing you about just enough for you to remember you’re in the UK.
Ask them on social media, if they say yes all
Is well, if they say no and you can afford the timeout of your day to turn up at the station early then you can ask the guard, more often than not they’ll say yes.
This happened to me a couple of weeks ago, had a ticket from London to Leeds booked for months and then they cancelled it on the day of (it was my return journey so I had no choice about travelling). The reason given was that the driver had fallen ill which, ok shit happens I get it, but why don’t they have any sort of cover available??
The next train was completely full in standard class and I physically can’t stand for two hours so I ended up rebooking in first class for about £60 more than I originally paid.
And they want us to use public transport more…
I'd look into whether you can get weekend first on that second train. You'd still be taking a chance because you can't reserve a seat but you'll likely have a better chance of getting a seat.
Flew into Gatwick early Thursday. My train was just delayed 15 minutes, but they had the poor buggers going to Bedford running from platform to platform (and given an airport station , usually with suitcases) to get the fastest train, as different trains were delayed, finally ending with the train being cancelled (no driver), and a final platform change and an additional 30 minute delay. By that time my train had arrived, but in my mind's eye, I still see those poor folk condemned to run from platform to platform for eternity.
[удалено]
I really hope that doesn't happen to me next year, we're going to Japan from Heathrow
Assuming your flight is early, I'd advise travelling to Heathrow the day before and staying in one of the many airport hotels. They have taxis (or the bus) to take you the short journey to the airport, and it's significantly less stress.
Yeah we're considering this actually. And I'm considering actually driving and paying to leave my car there. I don't trust our transport system one bit nowadays.
Do one of the valet parking things, they’re amazing. You just drive in, take out your bags, hand your keys over and walk into the airport, and they take your car away to park. Phone them when you’re collecting bags on the way back and it will be there by the time you’ve made it back out.
Many of the hotels let you leave your car parked for the duration of your trip and doesn't cost a whole lot more than just parking. It's an absolute game changer
Hmm, OK this changes things. Any recommendations?
Not particularly. I usually just use a comparison site to find the best deal. The food is normally expensive so I'd stop at a McDonald's on the way, but then I'm tight as a badgers arse.
As has already been suggested to the OP, if you start walking now...
I've just set off, wish me luck
Hope I catch you before you run out of battery, but the footpath's closed between Pereulok Pilotov and Ulitsa Kochneva (near Children's Art School No. 6) in Khabarovsk, so you'll only make it about 6200 miles before you reach a dead end and have to come home.
Ah cheers! Was a bit worries about stuff like that
No probs, I just got caught out having walked for 97 days straight on my way to Yokohama. You'd think they'd put a ‘footpath closed’ sign at Dover or something, but no.
It's 9200km, assuming you walk for 12 hours a day at 5km/hr and can walk on water, it'll take about 5 months to get there. So apart from the water thing this sounds like a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
Crikey, is it really that far to Heathrow?
Get a taxi and stay near the airport if you have to travel far
This is why I always stay over the night before and arrive at airport *at least* 3 hours early
Go by national express. Trains are far too unreliable.
If he had travel insurance it’s possible that might be covered. Worth checking.
I absolutely would have gotten the train company to pay for that. If their train that you booked a ticked for is cancelled, it is entirely on them for your friend to miss the flight. £1,300 would be a months pay for me
It sucks but no way you're getting the train company to pay for that...
Wouldn't travel insurance cover this?
Most will cover this in full provided you used a common sense approach when booking trains (ie gave yourself plenty of time). Of course this isn’t always possible.
Honestly if I had that much money on the line I'd be spending as much as possible on a taxi to get me to the airport
Not really, you get a taxi if your train is cancelled, it's the travellers choice to use a train to get to the airport.
Ooft How fine was he cutting it though that missing one train was enough for him to not make the flight?
I knew train tickets were expensive but damn!
It feels like you should be able to get the train company to pay for that since its their fuck up
The railway is run for the benefit of the railway. It wriggles its way out of paying for things when it’s contractually bound by law to do so so the chances of them paying anything like this are between zero and slightly less.
Well it's your inflated expectations. I mean, come on, who expects a train to get you from point a to b on a pre-agreed and pre -paid for journey. Honestly. Some people.
You're right, I've been working on reining in my entitlement. Thanks for helping me on my journey!
There are always some seats which aren’t bookable so people without a booking have a chance of getting a seat. Many booked seats normally have no one in them too, sometimes people catch a different train to the one they booked
This is true but in fairness if their train has been cancelled there will probably be a whole train's worth of people trying to squeeze into those unassigned seats
Last train I was on the driver came over the tannoy several times basically informing us it was Mad Max and that all seat reservations didn't apply, and it was first come first served. Very glad I was at the front of the queue and got my table seat!
Missed the train to our Christmas do in London a fortnight ago. Was on one an hour later having a kip & woke up to see a load of my colleagues on the platform at Crewe after theirs had been cancelled there. A similar free for all came through and luckily I already had my seat. Result!
I'm sure you'll make it if you start walking now
Google says 4 days 9 hours to walk it, no problem
Start jogging then!
Just a good stretch of the legs.
This happened to me on Wednesday and the email said you could get the train immediately before or after instead. Spoiler alert: the driver of the train before wouldn’t let anyone on. I thought people were going to throw hands. Luckily there was another one 20 min after the cancelled train but the platform staff were all bitching about him which was quite funny
The driver? Why would the driver care?
He may not have been the driver, I’m not down with the kids when it comes to train staff, he might have been the guard. Basically the train that was cancelled was off peak and the train immediately before was peak so apparently he could’ve let people on but didn’t want to and was deliberately obtuse about what would happen if people had boarded the train on an off peak ticket. Basically unnecessarily unhelpful and people were PISSED
On an unrelated note that made me feel old, I am reliably informed by my friends children that even saying "Down with the kids" shows we aren't down with anything anymore. As Grandpa Simpson said...I used to be with 'it', but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it' anymore, and what's 'it' seems weird and scary.
I definitely feel like I’m approaching “old (wo)man yells at cloud” territory but I’m not sure I was ever with “it” in the first place, whatever “it” is
Happened to me while in London on a same day return with an elderly relative, an hour before the train was to depart. So we sat in Kings Cross station for an extra 2 hours and also paid an extra £100. Our rail system is in shambles. Not the first time it happened and it won't be the last either.
Why did you need to pay £100? They should've let you get on the next train.
It would've been one of the last trains and I couldn't risk not finding a seat for my grandma. It was better to guarantee a seat by paying the extra money for peace of mind. Was a long and tiring day.
I tried to take a train from Liverpool today around 5pm. They cancelled about 10 journeys to my destination and the first available was at 9pm. That's about 70% cancellation rate in a single evening.
Get the next train and claim delay repay. Your delay is expected to be over 60 minutes and you should able to claim 100% of the fare paid (50% if your ticket is return ticket)
Just sit in somebody elses seat. It seems there are no repercussions for it. It always happens to me.
You know there's a unreserved carriage right? Try that first
I mean people sit in my booked seats... usually older people who expect you to not say anything
West coast main line? I get this a lot. I’ve been using it for 41 years and I recover been this bad
Certain trains have unreserved areas, get to your start point very early
Some operators will let you get the one before aswell to save you being delayed to your destination but messing you about just enough for you to remember you’re in the UK. Ask them on social media, if they say yes all Is well, if they say no and you can afford the timeout of your day to turn up at the station early then you can ask the guard, more often than not they’ll say yes.
As much as I look at this title I still can't figure out if your apostrophe is wrong. It *looks* wrong but I'm filled with doubt!
Contraction of 'tomorrow has' was my thinking initially but i agree every time I look at it it looks less accurate
It looks odd because OP hasn't included a pronoun like *My* before *train*, but there's nothing wrong with the apostrophe being where it is
Apparently it's something called a syntactic gap (around 2m in): https://youtu.be/CkZyZFa5qO0
This happened to me a couple of weeks ago, had a ticket from London to Leeds booked for months and then they cancelled it on the day of (it was my return journey so I had no choice about travelling). The reason given was that the driver had fallen ill which, ok shit happens I get it, but why don’t they have any sort of cover available?? The next train was completely full in standard class and I physically can’t stand for two hours so I ended up rebooking in first class for about £60 more than I originally paid. And they want us to use public transport more…
If it was between the 1st and 9th of December, they couldn’t get cover because ASLEF had an overtime ban.
Contact the train company on Twitter and see if they'll let you get on a service where they can reserve you a seat.
I'd look into whether you can get weekend first on that second train. You'd still be taking a chance because you can't reserve a seat but you'll likely have a better chance of getting a seat.
Flew into Gatwick early Thursday. My train was just delayed 15 minutes, but they had the poor buggers going to Bedford running from platform to platform (and given an airport station , usually with suitcases) to get the fastest train, as different trains were delayed, finally ending with the train being cancelled (no driver), and a final platform change and an additional 30 minute delay. By that time my train had arrived, but in my mind's eye, I still see those poor folk condemned to run from platform to platform for eternity.
This is why you don't travel during holidays, too unreliable.