Delay meant I chose to break my journey

[mad_rich]

Ticket was Off-Peak Return Ashington-Northampton. £161.80

Intended journey 0836-1407 today, changing at Newcastle, Tamworth and Rugby.

After handing in my ticket to the wall at Northampton , I then intended to travel up to Coventry on a separate ticket, before ending the day at Milton Keynes tonight.

Just before arriving at Tamworth, I saw that my train to Rugby was cancelled, and the next quickest option for Northampton was to stay onboard Crosscountry to Birmingham. This would’ve resulted in a delay of 31 minutes at Northampton. And an hour at Coventry.

I decided it wasn’t worth accepting that delay, so I instead went straight to Coventry, broke my journey there for several hours, then continued to Northampton this evening.

Is it possible to claim delay repay based on the delay I would’ve had to Northampton, which caused me to change my plans?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Unfortunately not. Delay Repay is always based on what you did do, not what you might have done. As one example if I arrive at MKC 10 minutes late, missing a connection to Bletchley, if I end there I get nothing, whereas if I had waited the 20ish minutes for the next Bletchley connection (it's 4tph but the fast and slow are only a couple of minutes apart) I get a 15 minute claim.

Which is a bit annoying, as it wouldn't in principle seem unfair to claim the full DR and spend the money on a taxi back from MKC, thus getting home on time, but life isn't always fair.

 

[Haywain]

Is it possible to claim delay repay based on the delay I would’ve had to Northampton, which caused me to change my plans?

As you changed your plans to avoid being delayed I don’t see that you can have a valid claim. You certainly can’t claim for a delay to Northampton when you didn’t go there.

 

[mad_rich]

Thanks both. That’s what I suspected.

There are plenty of times when Delay Repay has given me a very generous payout, so it’s swings and roundabouts I guess.

The service desk at Northampton was very happy to receive my Ashington ticket, and I was able to go straight back down onto the same train to continue to MK. And funnily enough Bletchley today, @Bletchleyite !

 

[robbeech]

Somewhat OT but I did wonder if someone might have added one of the new stations on the wall yesterday. Well done for getting it done on the first day. I added my local station on Wednesday.