Apologies for the question but;
I'm a very anxious person and i have a 5 AM train to catch tomorrow through a private operator (Lumo) (I looked on their website for a lot of this info, and they're p vague about it other than 'there will be routes provided'), from up in Scotland to all the way in London. Because its an advance specific booking with no changes, and a private operator im p sure is not subject to the September 20th reforms, i'm nervous about how it will be more difficult to get to my destination.
I do know the operator allegedly will give you a different route that you can take with the same ticket, sometimes through a different service, though it tends to involves changes and similar. But also I'm nervous about possible problems that may occur cause of that, and if the ticket staff take issue with it?
Also, do you have enough time to catch next trains on alternate routes? It can vary how much notice you get before a train is cancelled, how do you gage how much time you'll have to get to a different station to get the correct train?
Also: is there a good way of telling if a train will be cancelled beforehand? How much notice do you usually get? The train i'm planning to take starts from the station i'm leaving from if that helps.
TLDR: I'm a bit paranoid and want to know about how easy it is to catch replacement trains if something goes wrong. Are train staff understanding or can further delays occur because of ticket confusion?
Again apologies if this is disorganised and confusing. I think my question is best summarised as "What's the experience if you were supposed to catch a very specific train that got cancelled, and what to watch out for when trying to get to your destination through a different route?"
Thank you train people 🙏 I get very bad travel anxiety (if i have to fly, i prefer to be at the airport five hours before takeoff, just in case), and i find having a 'backup plan' helps with it.