LNER, Northern and TransPennine Express will allow customers to
travel on each other's services during any short-notice or
on-the-day cancellations.
Rail passengers in the north of England will benefit from a new
customer initiative launching on 15 December 2024.
From 15 December 2024, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Express
will allow customers to travel on each other's services at no
extra cost during any short-notice and on-the-day cancellations –
giving people confidence that if services for one operator are
impacted, they can travel on any service under public ownership.
This means if a passenger's booked service on a rail service
under public ownership is cancelled, they will be entitled to
travel on any other service under public ownership at no extra
cost.
Customers holding a ticket valid for that service will be able to
travel with any other eligible DfT Operator (DFTO) service that reaches their
destination within 2 hours before or after the cancelled service.
This new initiative is an early benefit of better integration of
our railways under the government's reform plans. DFTO has been asked by the Secretary of
State to roll out passenger benefits across services already in
public ownership at pace.
This initiative means passengers will benefit from additional
flexibility during disruption, as well as a longer time window to
travel in. Customers may also still be able to travel with
non-DFTO operators in the event
their train is cancelled – options will be clearly communicated
to passengers in every case.
Historically, all train operators would have to agree ticket
acceptance on a case-by-case and train operator by train operator
basis, leaving passengers uncertain about whether their ticket
would be valid with another train operator, even in instances
when their originally booked train had been cancelled.
Rail Minister, Lord , said:
No one wants their train to be cancelled. But during times of
unavoidable disruption, it's initiatives like these that can
make a huge difference to a passenger's journey – knowing you can
hop on to another publicly owned service and still get to your
destination.
This is just one of many ways a publicly owned railway will put
passengers at the heart of journeys, affording them flexibility,
certainty and confidence.
Although not yet applicable to Southeastern because of the
different geographical areas it covers, as more train operators
join DFTO, the greater benefit
to passengers there will be, as tickets are accepted more widely.
Until legislation for Great British Railways (GBR) is in place, DFTO is working together with Network Rail
and the Department for Transport (DfT) as Shadow Great British
Railways to ensure the sector works together better in
preparation for a publicly owned railway.
