Delay repay Q: Claim without making it to the station?

[Thebaz]

Morning,

Due to lineside fire at Brockley this morning all Southern/GTR routes into and out of London Bridge are severely disrupted. I discovered this whilst checking the National Rail app walking to my station, so I turned back and decided to work from home until it all settles down. Can I claim for the delay?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Only if:

1. You already bought the ticket before becoming aware of the delay (this is slightly debatable but if you buy one long after the delay they won't pay it);

2. You actually do travel (if you don't, what you want is an abandoned journey refund from the retailer). Though I think with seasons there is some sort of workaround here where you'd claim DR instead.

In such a case I'd claim for the delay I would have incurred if I'd travelled immediately, not the longer self imposed one. Edit: but only if I travelled as soon as things settled down - if I decided to travel much later eg after lunch I think it would be pushing it a bit to be honest.

 

[ainsworth74]

Though I think with seasons there is some sort of workaround here where you'd claim DR instead.

I believe that depends on the TOC.

 

[Thebaz]

I have Oyster Monthly 1-6

(in reply to Bletchleyite's first point)

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Comes down mainly to whether you travelled or not. If you simply stayed at home and didn't travel at all, you'd be better writing an email to the TOC and explaining your circumstances.

Delay Repay in most circumstances requires you to have travelled and encountered a delay, not simply abandon your journey completely.

That said, the compensation calculation will be absolutely minimal based on your season ticket for this journey, so it may not be worth your time progressing.

 

[ainsworth74]

I have Oyster Monthly 1-6

Who is the retailer? When I have to give up a day's travel on my weekly (travel with Northern ticket bought via Northern) due to disruption I write to customer services and explain I had to abandon my journey (or never attempt it in the first place) and they usually send me the daily equivalent rate (cost of ticket divided by ten to give a single journey) or a free return journey voucher.

But I think the question is, did you actually travel in the end or not?

 

[Haywain]

the compensation calculation will be absolutely minimal based on your season ticket for this journey,

A 60 minute delay will be worth £7.49, which is a bit better than absolutely minimal.

 

[Thebaz]

Who is the retailer?

But I think the question is, did you actually travel in the end or not?

Southern/GTR. Yes I did travel, but much later and it was still massively disrupted. Then I travelled back home 4 hours later and was still disrupted even then. I should imagine Southern/GTR will be paying out a huge amount of DR for yesterday's events.

 

[ainsworth74]

In that case I'd put in a delay repay claim with Southern/GTR as you did actually travel.

And yes I imagine it will have been an expensive day for them!

 

[mjc]

Just had this debate with CrossCountry, travelling on flexi season ticket last month I abandoned the return journey part way and got my wife to pick me up as we were told to leave the train because it was diverting due to a line closure.
CrossCountry kept referring me to the retailer for refund of journey, I queried it and they confirmed, referring to NR conditions on travel. I read them but they referred back to the operator (condition 29 says retailer for abandoned journey, except if due to cancellation or disruption, in which case refer to condition 30; condition 30 specifically excludes season tickets) After lots of back and forth or me explaining this and asking them which bit of CoT applies, and them just sending me the link and referring to the same bit I’d explained couldn’t apply they’ve finally spoken to duty supervisor and agreed to deal with as a gesture of goodwill. It seems even the ToCs don’t know the rules.

 

[redreni]

As I understand it the right to a refund for an abandoned journey is now contingent on your returning to the point of origin.

You may be entitled to delay repay if you were late arriving at the station where you bailed out, and on some tickets for a partial refund on the unused portion.