Delay Repay when operator fails to get you to your ticketed destination at all

[StewartB]

My ticket (details below) was to Cambridge North (CMB) but I was abandonned by Great Northern at Cambridge (CBG) very late at night (0115) with no help, no taxis, and station locked up for the night. Is that considered "good enough" given that they are only a couple of miles apart and in a station group - i.e. does it fulfil their responsibility?

Also, for Delay Repay, since I never actually got to Cambridge North, I just claimed for 60-90 minutes based on arrival time at Cambridge, which was accepted and settled by Great Northern. Could I and should I have claimed for the full amount of the ticket? Do I have to physically arrive at Cambridge North station to make such a claim?

Does the fact that CBG and CMB are in a group affect this?


Background details of what happened:

Date: 4th December 2024
TOC: Great Northern
Ticket: Day travelcard Cambridge North (CMB) to London Z1-6 + Network railcard
Issue: last train from King's Cross (KGX) (at 2309) cancelled due to staff shortage
GN staff @ KGX instructed everybody to take the 2328 stopper to Stevenage then rail replacement bus to Cambridge (CBG), and staff at Cambridge will deal with onward travel.

Upon arrival at Cambridge at 0115, we find the station locked up for the night, no staff present, no taxis, nothing.

I was lucky as I live in Cambridge. The other people on the same RR bus needing to get to Ely or King's Lynn were not lucky - in fact, they were, rightfully in my opinion, very angry.

In the end, I shared a taxi most of the way home without going via CMB station itself (as it would have been a silly waste of my time and GN's money as my house is on the route between CBG and CMB - although I didn't claim for the taxi, as the people going to Ely were going to deal with that)

As I understand it, the weather and total travel time inconvenience do not fall under the train operator's responsibility. So the fact that was I home over two hours later than I would have been as a consequence of their delay, got wet and frozen after being made to wait for the RR bus in the cold, wind and rain at Stevenage for 30 minutes and having to spend 45 minutes at Cambridge trying to procure a taxi (although it was merely cold and windy by this point) makes no difference - is that correct?

 

[RJ]

If this happens again, use the help point on the station to get through to someone who can help, if there’s a way to get to it. At that time of day there should be staff around somewhere.

Failing that, the National Rail helpline.

 

[Kite159]

If this happens again, use the help point on the station to get through to someone who can help, if there’s a way to get to it. At that time of day there should be staff around somewhere.

Failing that, the National Rail helpline.

I would imagine as the station itself was locked up there would be no access to any of the help points. And assuming if the OP can access the help point it might be as much use as a chocolate teapot if it connects with the overseas NRE call centre.

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I would imagine there was a breakdown in communication between the staff at London and the staff at Cambridge regarding the cancellation of the last train.

 

[Failed Unit]

If you put the full delay repay in, the surely technically you would be on the first train the following day so +2 hours late.

 

[dvboy]

Claim for a full refund plus some compensation (although I note you didn't pay for the taxi yourself), might have to go through Customer Services rather than a delay repay form.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you put the full delay repay in, the surely technically you would be on the first train the following day so +2 hours late.

Only if you actually did do that.

This is probably one for customer services.

 

[Haywain]

Also, for Delay Repay, since I never actually got to Cambridge North, I just claimed for 60-90 minutes based on arrival time at Cambridge, which was accepted and settled by Great Northern. Could I and should I have claimed for the full amount of the ticket? Do I have to physically arrive at Cambridge North station to make such a claim?

As you claimed Delay Repay the matter has now been settled, and all you can do now is complain to GTR about the failure to get you to Cambridge North.

 

[Watershed]

In situations like this I think it would be perfectly reasonable to claim for the delay you would have incurred if you'd continued to the station rather than straight home. I can't see any reasonable interpretation of the NRCoT or Charter saying you are completely excluded from claiming Delay Repay if you avoid an unnecessary double-back at the end of your journey (at 1am).

Obviously if you had incurred taxi costs then you would also be entitled to claim those back, given the lack of staff at Cambridge. I certainly wouldn't be messing around trying to get through to a subcontinental call centre who probably don't even know how to spell Cambridge.

As it happens, there isn't a "Cambridge Stations" group (either for fares or routing purposes) - you can buy a ticket to/from "Cambridge or Cambridge North" in a handful of cases (mainly Advance tickets set by Avanti), but not for walk-up tickets to/from London.

It's somewhat of a moot point as there is an easement which explicitly states that tickets to CBG are valid to CMB and vice versa - so they are effectively part of a group, even if they aren't on paper. But either way, it makes no difference to the validity of your claim - you're entitled to travel to your chosen destination station, and it's not a defence for the train operator to say that they got you to a station part way along your journey (just because it happens to form part of your ticket's destination station group).

 

[Adam Williams]

Failing that, the National Rail helpline.

And assuming if the OP can access the help point it might be as much use as a chocolate teapot if it connects with the overseas NRE call centre.

Last time I rang NRE to complain about being stranded OOH, they gave me the [closed, at that time of day] public-facing West Midlands Trains customer service phone number which obviously did nothing useful, and then refused to do anything else.

You can try it, but it's likely to be an exercise in futility.

 

[mikeg]

Do Great Northern redirect to NRE? If so this is very bad, especially if they don't have a 24 hour customer contact. It's almost as if they don't have a plan or care about their contractual responsibilities. Have to say my experience with help points has not been so negative, with TPE at least, the help point always used to go through to someone who knew what they were doing what got me a taxi on each occasion I was stranded. Agree that this is now a case for customer services however.

 

[rocrat]

My experiences of being stranded at CBG (at a TOC's request, having rung them up and been told a taxi was waiting there instead of ELY) ended in a 4 figure payout from said TOC (including a long distance anytime 1st return, hotel stay, and some compensation) via the rail Ombudsman after the TOC denied all wrongdoing.

This wasn't Great Northern, but the utter lack of communication from other TOCs to greateranglia who run CBG station is truly shocking and directly caused the above to be extremely costly for the railway...

Greateranglia station call points are utterly useless. They often direct to NRE even during office hours and NRE are as unequipped and unhelpful as others have pointed out. I have tried and failed to exercise my rights via these on many an occasion, and the only saving grace for me has been calling EMR (who are often very helpful) instead...

One stunning moment of incompetence from said call points was the advice to instead use the emergency button (which directs to an emergency operator, not the TOC) to "contact the TOC." Needless to say this resulted in a brief apology to a very confused operator.

I therefore suggest/agree that call points, whilst they should be attempted, would have been unlikely to help OP very much!

 

[MrJeeves]

Do Great Northern redirect to NRE?

GTR always has a staffed control room that can handle situations like this, and stranded passengers can use any GTR station's "Emergency" button on the help point to contact GTR's Control.

Some TOCs have this button configured to do different things, such as dial 999, though which you point out, but all GTR station help points should go through their control ("Information" goes to NRE, though).

 

[Haywain]

Do Great Northern redirect to NRE?

Not sure what the relevance of this is, much as it might be interesting. The OP was stuck at Cambridge station which is operated by Greater Anglia.

 

[Kite159]

Not sure what the relevance of this is, much as it might be interesting. The OP was stuck at Cambridge station which is operated by Greater Anglia.

And any help points would likely be inaccessible due to the station being locked up.