West Midlands Railway

[Ian Hardy]

     To my complete surprise within 10 days I received a Cash voucher for
     £9 in the post!!!.......... great.... Until you read the small print... THIS voucher can only
  be cashed IN PERSON with proof of identity at an existing NORTHERN rail office......As The nearest office(s) are either Crewe or Nottingham It would likely cost me £10  to cash it.... >:( >:(

I hope you have not thrown it away as you have misunderstood the statement on the voucher.

What that statement means is that you can only exchange the voucher for CASH at a Northern Rail station (Crewe is operated by Virgin Trains by the way so you cannot exchange it for cash there).

However you can take the voucher to any rail ticket office (run by any TOC) and use it as part payment for any rail ticket, does not have to be on the TOC that issued the voucher.

[Stuharris 6360]

I hope you have not thrown it away as you have misunderstood the statement on the voucher.

What that statement means is that you can only exchange the voucher for CASH at a Northern Rail station (Crewe is operated by Virgin Trains by the way so you cannot exchange it for cash there).

However you can take the voucher to any rail ticket office (run by any TOC) and use it as part payment for any rail ticket, does not have to be on the TOC that issued the voucher.

That sounds about right.

If you could go to any station and collect cash, then it would involve having to swap cash between TOCs.

That is why companies weren't keen on having to give out cash, the vouchers were always treated as travel warrants and they were accounted for seperately.

[windy miller]

   Thanks for the update.....As you say...A voucher towards the cost of another journey?.... Presumably where the journey has a value in excess of £9?.. I have made enquires
with Northern rail and as you correctly noted Crewe is a VT operated office and Nottingham
is an East Mids train office. I have been informed that if I wish to exchange the voucher for cash it MUST be at a registered Northern office. There are no registered northern offices at either Sheffield or Doncaster. It was suggested that on a planned trip to Doncaster using a local service from Sheffield It would be possible to Exchange a voucher for cash at Either Rotherham , Mexborough, swinton , Or better still  Meadowhall where there are many more services for onward travel .     
   

[Solo1]

Why can't network rail cut back the trees by train lines so they will be less leaves blowing onto the lines

[The Real 4778]

Why can't network rail cut back the trees by train lines so they will be less leaves blowing onto the lines

Check their website.  They have a well documented strategy for lineside tree and vegetation management and operate a programme of tree lopping, felling and pruning.  They have to abide by all the various legislation around nesting season and so on, it shouldn't be just done when it suits them.

[Stu]

Why can't network rail cut back the trees by train lines so they will be less leaves blowing onto the lines

Why not just cut down every single tree in the country? No more trees means no more leaves, then trains can run on time again.  ;)

I was sweeping up leaves from our car park at work the other day. It's always a puzzler, because there are no trees on our street or anywhere nearby.  ::)

[I love Walsall buses]

Why not just cut down every single tree in the country? No more trees means no more leaves, then trains can run on time again.  ;)

I was sweeping up leaves from our car park at work the other day. It's always a puzzler, because there are no trees on our street or anywhere nearby.  ::)

If we cut every tree down in the world we wouldn't be able to breath

[Sh4318]

Why can't network rail cut back the trees by train lines so they will be less leaves blowing onto the lines

I think the better question would be "why do people complain about the leaves on the line every year?". Leaf fall happens, every year, leaves and water = residue

[Ian Hardy]

   Thanks for the update.....As you say...A voucher towards the cost of another journey?.... Presumably where the journey has a value in excess of £9?.. I have made enquires
with Northern rail and as you correctly noted Crewe is a VT operated office and Nottingham
is an East Mids train office. I have been informed that if I wish to exchange the voucher for cash it MUST be at a registered Northern office. There are no registered northern offices at either Sheffield or Doncaster. It was suggested that on a planned trip to Doncaster using a local service from Sheffield It would be possible to Exchange a voucher for cash at Either Rotherham , Mexborough, swinton , Or better still  Meadowhall where there are many more services for onward travel .     

I think that you have misunderstood what I said:
The voucher you have been sent can be used to "buy" any rail ticket at any rail station operated by any TOC for any cost, however if the value of the ticket you "buy" costs less than £9 you will not get any change, and if it cost more than £9 then you will need to pay the additional amount.
The only time that you need to exchange it for cash is if you don't want to buy another rail ticket and with that voucher you can only do that at a Northern station. 

e.g. I had a delayed journey between Dundee and Glasgow Queen Street in April 2018, I claimed and ScotRail sent me a voucher for £13.79.  I used the voucher as part payment to buy a Super Off peak return from Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street which I bought from Marylebone station which is operated by Chiltern Railways - i.e. the journey was not on ScotRail services and the ticket was not purchased from a ScotRail ticket office.
If I had wanted to exchange the voucher for cash then I would have to done it at ScotRail ticket office within 28 days of the date on the voucher.

I hope that makes it clearer.

[Stuharris 6360]

   Thanks for the update.....As you say...A voucher towards the cost of another journey?.... Presumably where the journey has a value in excess of £9?.. I have made enquires
with Northern rail and as you correctly noted Crewe is a VT operated office and Nottingham
is an East Mids train office. I have been informed that if I wish to exchange the voucher for cash it MUST be at a registered Northern office. There are no registered northern offices at either Sheffield or Doncaster. It was suggested that on a planned trip to Doncaster using a local service from Sheffield It would be possible to Exchange a voucher for cash at Either Rotherham , Mexborough, swinton , Or better still  Meadowhall where there are many more services for onward travel .     

@windy miller has it not been suggested to you to return the vouchers and ask for a cheque instead?

Northern Rails website says "You can claim Delay Repay if one of our trains is late or cancelled and as a result you get to your destination station more than 30 minutes later than scheduled, whether it is our fault or not. Compensation can be in the form of a cheque, National Rail vouchers which you can use to buy any rail ticket, a voucher exchangeable for cash from a Northern Ticket Office, or free tickets across our network, to use when you choose."

[Ian Hardy]

I think that you have misunderstood what I said:
The voucher you have been sent can be used to "buy" any rail ticket at any rail station operated by any TOC for any cost, however if the value of the ticket you "buy" costs less than £9 you will not get any change, and if it cost more than £9 then you will need to pay the additional amount.
The only time that you need to exchange it for cash is if you don't want to buy another rail ticket and with that voucher you can only do that at a Northern station. 

e.g. I had a delayed journey between Dundee and Glasgow Queen Street in April 2018, I claimed and ScotRail sent me a voucher for £13.79.  I used the voucher as part payment to buy a Super Off peak return from Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street which I bought from Marylebone station which is operated by Chiltern Railways - i.e. the journey was not on ScotRail services and the ticket was not purchased from a ScotRail ticket office.
If I had wanted to exchange the voucher for cash then I would have to done it at ScotRail ticket office within 28 days of the date on the voucher.

I hope that makes it clearer.

Windy Miller - Have you got a Cash Voucher or a National Rail Voucher, as they are two different things.

[windy miller]

 Clearly there has been some ambiguity here. I have not misunderstood either your quote or the validity of the voucher... I received a CASH voucher simply because
  I specifically asked for the cash alternative.. I had NO intention of making any
  rail journeys in the immediate future either within the northern territory or anywhere else.
  In retrospect, if I had known in advance that the cash option was only payable on northern territory and, more specifically, in person at a Northern office then yes, I may have chosen the alternative. Equally I could return the voucher to their Head office in Leeds and ask them to provide a travel voucher in return which I am assured would have been
acceptable under the circumstances  (at least before 5th January). As I said earlier, my proposed 'three ticket' split from BNS to Doncaster would have involved a break at both Burton on Trent and Sheffield, but as you rightly said none of these respective 'splits' would have exceeded £9 and the alternative through fare with XC would have cost considerably more.

[Ian Hardy]

Windy Miller,

Sorry for mixing up Cash Vouchers with Travel Vouchers. Good luck with trying to sort it out.

Ian Hardy

[windy miller]

 No problem Ian..... I noticed that your Scottish voucher redemption date was only 28 days?. obviously not all TOC's have the same time limits. Northern had offered me 3 months.
   In addition, Earlier in the year I had made a number of legitimate 'repay' claims c/o Virgin
  and on each occasion I asked for, and received a cheque in the post. Including a £5 payment
   for being 'turfed out' of a seat which was clearly marked 'available 'due to the train seat reservation system being out of commission. Yes, I had booked a seat but the seat was occupied by a father travelling with his three children on adjacent seats presumably with 'roll-up' tickets.   Current VT information suggests that you do NOT reserve a seat if you don't intend to sit in it!... I now tend to make a bee line for coach C in a 9 car set or alternatively Coach C or U in an eleven vehicle set neither of which are reservable under normal circumstances. 
Some good news... West mids rail fans... there are currently 81 new units on order with Bombardier (36x 4 veh sets, and 45 X5 veh sets provisionally as class 730 001-36 but not due for completion before May 2020....  incidentally, If you hold a national travel card (free) AND a Senior railcard £27 (on line).. it is possible to travel from Erdington to London Marylebone on a weekday using the 10.24am Chiltern service from Solihull for £3.65. (1 Hr. 47 mins) and £4.60 return in the evening.  A London one day travel card can be bought from your local rail station for £8.30 inc rail card disc. But you need to ask for an ALL zones Ticket (1-6) the discount will not apply to single/limited zone tickets   
 
   

[windy miller]

If we cut every tree down in the world we wouldn't be able to breath

I think you will find that at least 85% of our breathable air comes from the algae on the surface of the sea...not just from trees...  don't quote me  :)