From 20 September, customers holding a valid ticket will be able to travel on another operator\u2019s train two hours before or after the original cancelled service, on a reasonable alternative route.<\/p>\n
The rail minister, Lord Hendy, said: \u201cThis is a simple, commonsense change that puts passengers first. No one should be left stranded because of a fragmented railway when their journey is disrupted. From this weekend, if your train is cancelled, you can get on another operator\u2019s service and carry on your journey without paying again.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the government was making the railway \u201csimpler, fairer and easier to use, as we move towards Great British Railways and put public service back at the heart of our railways\u201d.<\/p>\n
Automatic cross-operator ticket acceptance has been brought in already across firms returned to public ownership, but now CrossCountry, GWR, Avanti West Coast and Chiltern Railways, running important intercity routes, will be included.<\/p>\n
The remaining passenger train operations are scheduled to come into public ownership next year under a Great British Railways banner<\/a>, bar a handful of open-access services, which will remain separate.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n East Midlands Railway, which has been beset with problems while introducing malfunctioning Hitachi bi-mode trains<\/a>, will also not be immediately included due to its ongoing mass cancellations<\/a> and shortages of seats.<\/p>\n Alex Robertson, the chief executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus said it was \u201ca welcome change that we have long called for\u201d, adding: \u201cThe key now is making sure passengers get clear information about their options whenever disruption occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rail passengers whose trains are cancelled will have the immediate right to travel on other operators\u2019 services to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-770126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789370652_774_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n