A glimpse into the world of the Rail Ombudsman, the referee in the unlikely event of a train operator not playing fair
I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are times when train operating companies (TOCs) fail to delight their customers. No, stick with it, this can happen. If you are not delighted, or more likely you want your money back after sitting looking at a field for 30 minutes when you should have been at work, your first call should always be to the train operator. If after forty days, or, even earlier, after a deadlock letter, you have got nowhere, then the Rail Ombudsman is for you and is just a click away.
The Rail Ombudsman can make a binding judgement on the TOC, but not on you, you can fight on (but don’t write to me!).
SCOPE
Controlling what is in scope and what isn’t is the key factor. The last thing anyone needs is another group trying to control the railway, if only because failure is guaranteed. If, for example, they decided that it wasn’t fair on the residents of Acton Bridge that they have two-hour gaps in their services and stopped more trains there that takes out capacity of the West Coast for more people. Train noise waking someone up might be another one for the out basket, a…
