Hi Guys
A friend can partially complete a rail journey tomorrow, but there are no trains to her final destination. She booked her travel before strike dates were announced, has an itinerary for the original journey, and is arriving back in the UK after visiting her family overseas, so not really feasible to travel on a different date.
She bought an anytime single for this journey. Asking on Twitter they state delay repay isn't possible on strike days. I suppose there isn't much she can do to get, say a partial refund? TOCs involved are XC and EMR.
Legally speaking, there can be no doubt that she is entitled to be provided with alternative transport (or overnight accommodation if this would cost less) for the portion of the journey which cannot be made by rail. When she's inevitably refused this, she will be entitled to recover the reasonable cost of such alternative transport/accommodation.
Delay compensation is more problematic. There is an undoubted entitlement to a minimum level of compensation under the Passenger Rights and Obligations Regulation (PRO), albeit this is only 25% of the relevant portion of the ticket for a 60-119 minute delay or 50% for 120+ minutes (in other words, generally between a quarter and half of what she would otherwise be entitled to under Delay Repay). The PRO does not permit operators to exclude or limit the rights it grants, so the Published Timetable of the Day concept is irrelevant to the entitlement under the PRO.
As others have said, the Published Timetable of the Day concept will however likely lead to any Delay Repay claim being rejected. The enforceability of this provision is highly questionable, but that is a more complex argument to make than simply relying on the PRO as it stands.
Unfortunately, the entitlements under any of the three avenues above are highly unlikely to be provided easily or voluntarily. It is highly likely that your friend would need to take the operator to Court to get what she is entitled to; whether she sees that as a good use of her time (bearing in mind that recoverable costs are likely to be limited to Court fees and the direct cost of attending any hearing) is obviously a matter for her to determine.
Therefore, your friend may prefer to pursue the alternative options which the rail industry tries to push people towards - getting a refund or using the ticket on another date. Your friend would not face any difficulties obtaining a full refund and rebooking for the portion of the journey that she can make, albeit this would not necessarily (in net) give her a fully proportional refund. For that, she would have to seek a partial refund.
The NRCoT and industry procedures do provide for partial refunds, alongside the PRO, and I don't imagine that she will face a total refusal in the same way that she would for an alternative transport/accommodation or Delay Repay claim. However, it may still be calculated with the same end effect as above (i.e. amount paid less the cost of a ticket to the station actually travelled to, rather than proportional) and so she may need to fight this to get a proportional refund.
In case it is of any assistance, the ticket will be accepted (without any endorsement etc. being required) up until the 10th of January; she would also be entitled to have the ticket reissued for a later date free of charge, but as it's an Anytime Single this is a rather pointless exercise.
