Delay compensation in Europe

[SeanG]

Apologies but I do not know whether this thread should be in "Fares Advice & Policy" or "International Transport".

My overnight Ceske Drahy sleeper was delayed by 90 minutes last week.

Passenger rights are in the European Union abided by Regulation (EC) No. 1371/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on passenger rights and obligations in rail transport dated October 23, 2007. Based on the EC regulation stipulated, a passenger is entitled to compensation in the event of a train delay when, under the transport contract, (s)he has arrived at the destination station with a delay of 60 minutes or more at 25% of the fare in one direction, however, the minimum fare must be 16 EUR. If the delay is 120 minutes or more, compensation is at 50% of the fare in one direction, the minimum fare is 8 EUR.

Does anyone know if the compensation would relate to solely the fare, or the total paid (ie fare + berth reservation)?

Thanks

 

[Watershed]

Apologies but I do not know whether this thread should be in "Fares Advice & Policy" or "International Transport".

My overnight Ceske Drahy sleeper was delayed by 90 minutes last week.

Passenger rights are in the European Union abided by Regulation (EC) No. 1371/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on passenger rights and obligations in rail transport dated October 23, 2007. Based on the EC regulation stipulated, a passenger is entitled to compensation in the event of a train delay when, under the transport contract, (s)he has arrived at the destination station with a delay of 60 minutes or more at 25% of the fare in one direction, however, the minimum fare must be 16 EUR. If the delay is 120 minutes or more, compensation is at 50% of the fare in one direction, the minimum fare is 8 EUR.

Does anyone know if the compensation would relate to solely the fare, or the total paid (ie fare + berth reservation)?

Thanks

It's ambiguous in the Regulations - it simply refers to "the ticket price" and says "compensation for delay shall be calculated in relation to the price which the passenger actually paid for the delayed service".

I suspect that if you bought a ticket which would have been valid on different services (or in seated accommodation) and additionally obtained a berth supplement, then the supplement would likely not be included in the determinations of compensation.

If, however, you bought a berth-inclusive fare then it would be calculated based on the total amount paid.

 

[SeanG]

I bought a berth inclusive fare and so fingers crossed it is calculated as a whole. Unfortunately the CD website is down to foreign users due to a hack so I will just have to see when it is up and running again what I get

 

[rvdborgt]

Compensation relates to the total fare you paid, so includes any supplements.

 

[dutchflyer]

Just by chance I now sit in a hotel in Praha-and today enjoying the free urban transit as senior.
I had a similar (but no sleeper) case a year or 2 ago and started the ordeal to get a refund (train=Pendolino gave up somewhere before Plzen and the whole chain onward thus became +2 hrs), but in the end the offer was not money back, but travel credit (or similar) for a later to book trip on cd (on which I even have a client account-use that maybe 1 - 2 times.yr). As such this is perfectly allowed. But maybe others have found other tricks to get some compensation in the end. Most likely its well <10€ or GBP. You may want to try out-just for the experience in how state-railways (narodni transport) are/seem always able to fob off their clients or find any excuse to find something you have overlooked or did not realise (in this case f.e. a hand-written note that the train was indeed that late, with stamp from official station-preferable from countries where there is hardly any staffed counter left).

 

[Watershed]

Just by chance I now sit in a hotel in Praha-and today enjoying the free urban transit as senior.
I had a similar (but no sleeper) case a year or 2 ago and started the ordeal to get a refund (train=Pendolino gave up somewhere before Plzen and the whole chain onward thus became +2 hrs), but in the end the offer was not money back, but travel credit (or similar) for a later to book trip on cd (on which I even have a client account-use that maybe 1 - 2 times.yr). As such this is perfectly allowed. But maybe others have found other tricks to get some compensation in the end. Most likely its well <10€ or GBP. You may want to try out-just for the experience in how state-railways (narodni transport) are/seem always able to fob off their clients or find any excuse to find something you have overlooked or did not realise (in this case f.e. a hand-written note that the train was indeed that late, with stamp from official station-preferable from countries where there is hardly any staffed counter left).

You are entitled to insist on cash payment of the delay compensation under the EU Regulation, however there is a minimum claim value of €4.

Unfortunately I can well believe that there are railways that make it as difficult as possible to claim.

 

[rvdborgt]

You may want to try out-just for the experience in how state-railways (narodni transport) are/seem always able to fob off their clients or find any excuse to find something you have overlooked or did not realise (in this case f.e. a hand-written note that the train was indeed that late, with stamp from official station-preferable from countries where there is hardly any staffed counter left).

There is no such requirement in the EU Regulation and therefore such a confirmation cannot be required to be entitled to delay compensation.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

In 2019 I was on a DB ICE between Vienna and Regensburg, when the line's power supply failed (in Austria) for the best part of 3 hours.
When we got going again the conductor came round with claim forms already stamped with "over 2 hours delay".
My DB ticket, though, was a complicated one from Vienna to Rotterdam, split over 2 days, and I picked up my planned trains next day from Regensburg.
I was quite pleased to find that DB refunded 50% of the total fare, not just that of the first leg.
Presumably the total bill for the power failure eventually found its way to ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG.

 

[30907]

In 2019 I was on a DB ICE between Vienna and Regensburg, when the line's power supply failed (in Austria) for the best part of 3 hours.
When we got going again the conductor came round with claim forms already stamped with "over 2 hours delay".
My DB ticket, though, was a complicated one from Vienna to Rotterdam, split over 2 days, and I picked up my planned trains next day from Regensburg.
I was quite pleased to find that DB refunded 50% of the total fare, not just that of the first leg.

...whereas I was less pleased when I did Prague-Frankfurt (overnight stop) - London with a 2hr delay on the first day, they only refunded a few Euros for unused seat reservations
Admittedly no conductor with pre-stamped claim forms.