Avanti Delay Repay - change to published arrival time

[gpmartin]

Hello. On Sunday 3 November I travelled from Burton on Trent to Euston via Birmingham New Street, taking the 11:26 Avanti service from Birmingham. The service was delayed and arrived at Euston at 13:14.

I submitted a Delay Repay claim as it appeared to be just over 15 minutes late: my ticket stated it was scheduled to arrive at 12:58. My claim has been rejected, however, on the grounds that the scheduled arrival time was 13:01. Looking at Real Time Trains, this seems to be correct. I assume the schedule was changed after I purchased the ticket. I've appealed the decision but I wonder what the forum's thoughts are on this. Would this be similar to the 'published timetable of the day' issue, where a train operating company can simply change a schedule after a ticket has been booked and use that as the basis for compensation calculations?

 

[Starmill]

Were you informed of the amendment of the time in advance of boarding the first train? Who did you buy your tickets from and how?

 

[gpmartin]

Thanks for the reply. I bought the tickets from Cross Country (split tickets BUT-BHM and BHM-EUS, comfortably compliant with the minimum interchange time at BHM). In terms of being informed, no - I received no notice of the amendment (of course it was negligible, at only 3 minutes).

 

[MrJeeves]

For info, it appears the timetable was changed on 10 October, at the same time as a Watford Junction call being added to the service.

To see the 12:58 arrival, presumably OP must have booked between 1 Oct (when the train was reinstated into the timetable) and 10 Oct (when the arrival time was changed).

Wolverhampton to London Euston on 03/11/2024 | Train Timetable

 

[Starmill]

Thanks for the reply. I bought the tickets from Cross Country (split tickets BUT-BHM and BHM-EUS, comfortably compliant with the minimum interchange time at BHM). In terms of being informed, no - I received no notice of the amendment (of course it was negligible, at only 3 minutes).

As you didn't receive any notification at all, you can argue that the new time doesn't form part of your contract. A revised schedule can only form part of your contract if you're actually aware of it. As such I'd suggest just appealing, submitting a complaint and asking for a deadlock letter, and then complaining to the Rail Ombudsman - be very clear that you're arguing that your booked arrival time is determined by the documents you received at time of booking and no amendments to these were communicated to you.

You probably still won't get anywhere with Avanti or the Ombudsman and if you want your compensation you may have to litigate.

 

[gpmartin]

Thanks both. Can't remember exactly when I booked it but that sounds about right. I'm owed only £6 so it's not worth even an application to the small claims court, but I will take every step short of that out of sheer bloodymindedness - I've been incorrectly denied Delay Repay too many times and I don't like letting them do so without a fight.

 

[Starmill]

Thanks both. Can't remember exactly when I booked it but that sounds about right. I'm owed only £6 so it's not worth even an application to the small claims court, but I will take every step short of that out of sheer bloodymindedness - I've been incorrectly denied Delay Repay too many times and I don't like letting them do so without a fight.

I think it works in your favour that you booked using a means where you provided your contact details and this option wasn't utilised.

If the amendment had been communicated to you in advance and you'd indicated your agreement to it that would potentially change matters here. You should have been proactively given the chance to cancel the booking too but you were obviously denied that opportunity.

Avanti might argue that they couldn't access your contact details themselves, although there'd be a very clear basis for them to use them to infom you of an amended schedule. In any case contacting you is now an accreditation requirement.

 

[Haywain]

I think it works in your favour that you booked using a means where you provided your contact details and this option wasn't utilised.

Might be worth checking spam folders though, just to make sure.

 

[Starmill]

Might be worth checking spam folders though, just to make sure.

Absolutely is.

 

[gpmartin]

Thanks again for your advice on this. In case of interest, it has now been resolved. The initial Delay Repay claim was rejected, as was the appeal. I approached customer services who appeared to understand the issue and referred it back to the Delay Repay team. All went quiet so I followed up, and was told that the original decision had been upheld because Cross Country should have told me about the timetable change. I replied to say that they had not, and to request a deadlock letter so that I could approach the Ombudsman. That appeared to do the trick and I have been told that I will receive Delay Repay (to the amount of £6) after all.

So a good outcome in the end, albeit only after a rather longer process than it should have been (and one that, even without the Ombudsman's intervention, was probably more costly to Avanti than the value of the claim...).