Cross Country taxi reimbursement

[ManTheDan]

Hi,

I was travelling on the 08:44 Cross Country service from South Wigston to arrive at Stansted Airport for 11:44 on 06/06/25 to catch a flight at 14:05 and there was an engine fault requiring the service to terminate prematurely at Oakham. There was a long delay in moving the train out of the way which significantly delayed the next service to Stansted (and was cancelled after Cambridge anyway), requiring me to take a £150 Uber from Oakham to Stansted to make my flight on time. Would I be entitled to compensation from CC to repay the cost of the taxi as they failed to complete the service with no suitable alternative? The ticket was bought through Trainline.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi,

I was travelling on the 08:44 Cross Country service from South Wigston to arrive at Stansted Airport for 11:44 on 06/06/25 to catch a flight at 14:05 and there was an engine fault requiring the service to terminate prematurely at Oakham. There was a long delay in moving the train out of the way which significantly delayed the next service to Stansted (and was cancelled after Cambridge anyway), requiring me to take a £150 Uber from Oakham to Stansted to make my flight on time. Would I be entitled to compensation from CC to repay the cost of the taxi as they failed to complete the service with no suitable alternative? The ticket was bought through Trainline.

Welcome - people will explain your rights here but my hunch is this is one for your travel insurer (if you have one)

So the train you were on was this one ?

Realtime Trains | 1L32 0752 Birmingham New Street to Oakham | 06/06/2025

Real-time train running information for 1L32 0752 departure from Birmingham New Street to Oakham on 06/06/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

circa 45 mins late at Oakham and cancelled there

I think a really important question is did you take the Uber on the advice or authorisation of railway staff on the train or at Oakham station? (as opposed to seeing that you would miss your flight and deciding yourself that getting the Uber was the only realistic way of making your flight)

Out of interest, what did other people do? I would think many people on that train were heading to Stansted for flights like you were. What did the railway staff advise passengers to do who were on the train? Did the guard make announcements?


The next train through to Cambridge seems to have been this one - heavily delayed and terminated at Cambridge at 12.52

Realtime Trains | 1L34 0922 Birmingham New Street to Cambridge | 06/06/2025

Real-time train running information for 1L34 0922 departure from Birmingham New Street to Cambridge on 06/06/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

with the next connection for Stansted Airport being this - arriving there at 14.12 - also heavily late and after the flight departure time

Realtime Trains | 1L36 1022 Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport | 06/06/2025

Real-time train running information for 1L36 1022 departure from Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport on 06/06/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

so arriving nearly 2 and half hours after scheduled arrival time

I suspect the Railways obligation to you is to either
a) refund your ticket in full on the basis of an abandoned journey (which you claim from Trainline who seem to make it a bit complex to claim that) - ie you abandoned your journey at Oakham and opted to travel by other means of your own choice (the taxi - unless the railway authised this taxi)
or
b) possibly a Delay Repay Claim (which would also be to the value of your ticket given the length of the delay in this case - claimed from Cross Country not the retailer) BUT this needs checking as if you didn't actually make the full journey by train I'm not sure if you should claim that

I don't think the railway's' obligation is to get you to a destination within a certain time of the planned arrival, but to get you there that day (or put you up overnight if they can't) - now clearly that's no use if you need to catch a flight but I think their obligation is to get you to the destination on their railway ticket - not the consequential costs if they fail (eg re-booking to another flight)

So I think you need to

1) check your travel insurance to see if you can claim against something like 'failure of public transport' in the policy
and
2) wait for clarification here ref a submitting either a refund or a delay claim -which experts here can advise you how to claim -it's important not to claim the wrong one of those two options

Hopefully others can help and also say if there are other options you can consider.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Abandoned journey refunds now require returning to origin so that isn't an option (i.e. they are now only applicable to "giving up and going home")*. Delay Repay is based on the journey actually made which was to Oakham and not I think late, though you could argue the taxi's destination was it and you arrived there when you did in the taxi.

I think this one is going to require a letter to customer services for a discretionary payment, or a claim on your travel insurance if that covers it.

* I can see why they've gone this way. Many times I've given up and taken the bus from MKC on a ticket from a long way away to Bletchley because of a missed or cancelled connection, and it would be silly if I could claim a refund of £100+ over that tiny proportion of the journey - I never did, but under the old rules I technically could have done.

 

[WesternLancer]

Abandoned journey refunds now require returning to origin so that isn't an option (i.e. they are now only applicable to "giving up and going home")*. Delay Repay is based on the journey actually made which was to Oakham and not I think late, though you could argue the taxi's destination was it and you arrived there when you did in the taxi.

I think this one is going to require a letter to customer services for a discretionary payment, or a claim on your travel insurance if that covers it.

* I can see why they've gone this way. Many times I've given up and taken the bus from MKC on a ticket from a long way away to Bletchley because of a missed or cancelled connection, and it would be silly if I could claim a refund of £100+ over that tiny proportion of the journey - I never did, but under the old rules I technically could have done.

Thanks

Train arrived at Oakham at least 46 mins late by the looks of it from my link above of the running schedule - delayed leaving Leicester and the delay got worse

the Delay - Repay thresholds are set out here - depends on the ticket type held - 50% or 25% depending on ticket type held for a delay of that duration

Delay repay | CrossCountry Trains

Book quickly and easily. Buy cheap train tickets, find live train times, explore Railcards, and more today with CrossCountry.

www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

If a refund is no longer permitted in these circumstances by not returning to the point of origin then and there / as soon as feasible to do so.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If the train arrived at Oakham 46 minutes late and the journey was ended there I don't see why a Delay Repay claim for a 30 minute delay wouldn't be an option. Though it might be worth asking for the taxi fare on top.

Only complication might be if it was an Advance ticket (or an Off Peak barring outward BoJ, but most if not all XC's priced flows don't bar it), though any TOC trying to enforce break of journey restrictions when the break was due to the TOC's doing I think that really would be stooping low.

 

[WesternLancer]

Perhaps the OP can tell us exactly what sort of ticket they had and what it cost (or upload a copy of the used ticket if they can), that might help.

 

[AlterEgo]

Give CrossCountry a call about this one.

 

[WesternLancer]

Give CrossCountry a call about this one.

This could work - probably best the OP is clear on what their rights are from the National Conditions of travel ref the railway before they ring customer services and what they are actually going to ask for - ie would the request be for a good will payment for the cost of the taxi?

The most expensive Anytime Single on the route would be £88. A payment of that would go someway to the taxi fare incurred. But the OP may have had a much cheaper ticket

 

[Pushpit]

@Watershed - is this CRA 2015 territory if customer services are unhelpful?

 

[Haywain]

Give CrossCountry a call about this one.

This.

I don't see why a Delay Repay claim for a 30 minute delay wouldn't be an option. Though it might be worth asking for the taxi fare on top.

I don't think that's at all appropriate in this case, and I don't think that the taxi fare would then be reimbursed. There is an argument that either the railway delayed you or you felt you had to use alternative transport, but you can't have both.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't think that's at all appropriate in this case, and I don't think that the taxi fare would then be reimbursed. There is an argument that either the railway delayed you or you felt you had to use alternative transport, but you can't have both.

If we consider the taxi as part of the rail journey and the OP arrived at their ticketed destination more than 15 minutes later than their itinerary in said taxi, then they absolutely can have both.

 

[AlterEgo]

To be more clear, XC used to (I can’t see any longer) have a policy whereby if you’d left three hours between your train arriving and your flight leaving at Stansted, and you missed your flight/had to get a taxi, they’d reimburse you for it.

I can’t see reference to this any more but it may be that XC have some internal and unpublished policy around this. I’d start with a phone call and be cognisant of your consumer rights - the latter isn’t my expertise here.

If all else fails, hopefully you have travel insurance which may assist?

 

[Haywain]

to arrive at Stansted Airport for 11:44 on 06/06/25 to catch a flight at 14:05

I'd have a slight concern about whether this really allowed sufficient time for a flight.

If we consider the taxi as part of the rail journey and the OP arrived at their ticketed destination more than 15 minutes later than their itinerary in said taxi, then they absolutely can have both.

If the railway has provided the alternative, I would agree.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd have a slight concern about whether this really allowed sufficient time for a flight.

I'd say it was. An hour beforehand is fine for a European flight with hand luggage only. That's over two hours so plenty of slack.

If the railway has provided the alternative, I would agree.

If it reimburses the taxi then we are basically there.

 

[enyoueffsea]

Just to say I dealt with XC’s customer services team recently for a similar (but not identical) issue and they were very quick to offer a discretionary payment.

I say very quick, it was their first response, that response did take a long time to receive and the payment wasn’t much quicker.

Of course that doesn’t guarantee you the same success, but I do agree with others that would be my first port of call.

 

[Watershed]

@Watershed - is this CRA 2015 territory if customer services are unhelpful?

I would suggest it is. The disruption was caused by something that was arguably within XC's control, and certainly within their area of responsibility - as opposed to being caused by something like trespass or vandalism. Accordingly the question would arise whether the service had been provided with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, and in compliance with any information that became an implied term of the contract (i.e. the advertised timings).

Airports generally advise passengers to arrive 2 hours before departure for short haul flights and 3 hours for long haul flights. Emirates operate just about the only scheduled long haul departures from Stansted, and neither of their flights leave at 14:05, so we can be fairly sure it was a short haul flight. Accordingly, by planning to arrive 2h21m before the flight's departure, I would suggest the OP allowed plenty of time and they are in no way to blame here.

One question would be the arrangements that XC made, or suggested - did they put on any replacement buses etc. that the OP could have taken to mitigate their losses? I presume the answer is 'no', though; it would be fairly unusual for a TOC to do that for what is - in the scheme of things - fairly small-scale disruption. I doubt a replacement bus could have been provided before the next train was expected, either.

Let's see what XC come back with first.

 

[35B]

One question would be the arrangements that XC made, or suggested - did they put on any replacement buses etc. that the OP could have taken to mitigate their losses? I presume the answer is 'no', though; it would be fairly unusual for a TOC to do that for what is - in the scheme of things - fairly small-scale disruption. I doubt a replacement bus could have been provided before the next train was expected, either.

I think it's unlikely. The train was allowed to proceed from Leicester so was in working order then. Oakham is not a large place, and the options for such alternative measures will be quite limited, especially at no notice.