Rail users are facing a miserable Christmas with a mix of prolonged strikes and engineering works. Yet this will not stop train companies from charging punitive prices – even for journeys that never go ahead.
Getting compensation for delayed or cancelled services remains a lottery. Only about a third of travellers claim the compensation they are entitled to.
Of those who claim, nearly a quarter get no compensation – often with no explanation why a valid request has been turned down.
Struggle: Getting compensation for delayed or cancelled services remains a lottery
Not paying up saves train companies £100million a year.
Industry watchdog Transport Focus believes there is a desperate need for a regulatory shake-up to ensure rail users get the compensation they deserve automatically – without unnecessary obstacles.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, says: ‘All too often, passengers are left in the dark – and have no idea they can even claim. Each train operator has their own process, which creates more confusion.’
Transport Focus is demanding a national website through which claims against all train operators can be made – with compensation based on a universal ‘Delay Repay’ formula.
Nineteen out of 24 rail companies are signed up to the current Delay Repay scheme, though operators pay different amounts.
For example, Avanti West Coast pays 25 per cent of a single ticket price if someone is delayed between 15 and 30 minutes. Others, such as CrossCountry, pay nothing.
But anyone signed up to Delay Repay can reclaim half the single fare when a journey is delayed between 30 minutes and an hour. For delays in excess of an hour but under two hours, the full value of a single fare can be reclaimed.
Over two hours, compensation for the full return ticket price can be obtained. This full refund applies to cancellations, including those on strike days.
The train strikes in the run-up to Christmas and over the festive period will be hugely disruptive, but travellers are only guaranteed a refund if they have bought a ticket for a strike day. These dates are currently for journeys booked on December 13, 14, 16 and 17, plus Christmas Eve and the 27th. More strikes are earmarked for January 3, 4, 6 and 7.
Some railway companies are signed up to National Rail Conditions of Carriage rules that are less generous than Delay Repay. If a train is delayed an hour or more, the operator refunds half the price of a single ticket.
A full refund is paid if a train is cancelled due to strikes. Where a journey requires more than one train operator, it is the company which triggered the cancellation or delay that is liable to pay compensation.
For those with weekly, monthly or season tickets, compensation claims can also be made.
Claims must be made within 28 days of a journey and original tickets must be produced. Sometimes, proof of purchase is also demanded, so keep any receipt.
The best way to make a claim is online although claim forms are available at stations. Where tickets come with ‘QR’ codes that are read at a ticket barrier, app software can make it hard to make an online claim.
Infuriatingly, it may be necessary to visit a ticket office to get them to help out. Once a claim is made, there may still be more hurdles.
Greater Anglia will often email claimants with demands for extra information – for example, a ticket’s duration – but won’t provide details of where to send the requested information. Rail companies will also try to weasel out of paying by referring to ‘unavoidable’ circumstances such as engineering works or the existence of a rail replacement bus service.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the Government-backed rail regulator, introduced new rules in April to make it easier to make a claim. But the train operators are taking their time to implement the rules.
Stephanie Tobyn, ORR director of strategy, policy and reform, says: ‘Companies must provide clear information about compensation rights when people book tickets. They must also inform passengers of their right to make a claim if they are on a delayed train or waiting for a train on a platform.’
ORR’s latest research shows that only 37 per cent of passengers eligible for compensation make a claim – with many ‘deterred by complex claim processes’.
Its latest figures show 1.2million compensation claims were made by rail passengers between April 1 and July 23 – but only 78 per cent were approved.
Companies receiving the most complaints include Avanti West Coast, Govia Thameslink Railway and Great Western Railway.
On Friday, a spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, the organisation representing train companies, said: ‘Train operators have increasingly sought to make it as easy as possible for people to claim refunds, with most claims now submitted digitally.
‘Customers no longer have to take their tickets to a ticket office.’
COMMENT: Fire on line? Now I’ve really had enough!
I rue the day I left London just ahead of lockdown in 2020 for a leafier life in Berkshire. Commuting by train has become a nightmare as a result of repeated delays, cancellations – and, of course, strikes organised by a union (RMT) whose officials are only really interested in causing economic chaos and bringing down the Government.
Although the next batch of strikes starts on Tuesday, my service already seems to have gone into strike mode. For example, last Thursday I ran to Wokingham station all fired up to get the first train to Reading (5.57am), a South Western Railway service. It failed to appear, as did the 6.27. Too cold for the trains to run? Unlike me. Maybe, nobody bothered to say, but there were no SWR trains running between Reading and London Waterloo either way.
I eventually managed to get the 6.42 Great Western Railway Service to Reading, although it was four minutes late.
Having got to Reading, I thought my travel woes would be over, what with plenty of GWR trains stopping en route to London Paddington.
How wrong I was. The 7.02 service crawled its way to the capital as a result of issues at Twyford and further down the line a trackside fire (a fire! Really?)
When the train arrived at its destination just after eight o’clock, it was 32 minutes late.
Both delayed legs of the journey qualify for compensation. I’ve made my online delay pay claims (a pretty painless experience compared to the commute) and wait to be told the pittance I will receive to offset against the £126.20 I paid for a weekly ticket.
And yes, my ticket. I normally buy a monthly one for £484.30. But the multitude of strikes in the coming days made that a non-starter for December. So I’ve ended up paying more pro-rata for a weekly ticket.
Having been delayed seven days ago by more than 30 minutes when I used Avanti West Coast to go from London to Birmingham to see my mother (compensation of £5.12 paid), I’ve had enough.
Bloody railways. Bloody unions.
Jeff Prestridge
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