Delay repay during Avanti strikes?

[Cat Lechat]

TL;DR can I claim delay repay relative to my booked Advance ticket times during Avanti's strikes after the alternative train I caught was delayed?

I had an advance ticket for a Glasgow-Euston journey with Avanti on Sunday 9th Feb, which was cancelled due to the strikes. I ended up traveling via Edinburgh with LNER to King's Cross on a train that should have arrived about the same time as my originally booked journey (after Avanti finally told me there was ticket acceptance in place - the poor information provided by Avanti about what my options were until I rocked up at one of their ticket offices and the very late notification that the train was cancelled could be a whole other thread). Unfortunately a freight train broke down in front of us and we were pretty badly delayed - well within 100% refund territory both relative to my original arrival time and the timetabled arrival of the train I actually caught.

I might normally just write it off, given I did eventually get home despite engineering work and strikes, but spending 5 hours sat in a draughty vestibule (I'd been warned there probably wouldn't be any seats available until York but we arrived in York 2 hours later than planned) and not getting to bed until 2am have really screwed up my ability to get anything useful done today, plus it was a miserable journey. Avanti's website seems to suggest that I can't get delay repay because I 'chose' to travel on the Sunday despite the strikes (they told me the train was cancelled on Tuesday when I was already in the Highlands; given I already had ferries and other trains booked for getting back to Glasgow and I needed to be at work today, I would dispute whether that's a choice). However, they did print me an alternative itinerary which I still have, showing the train I did get and that definitely was delayed.

Basically do I have any argument here, and if so do you have any suggestions what I should be putting into the delay repay form to support that?

 

[Watershed]

You could certainly claim Delay Repay based on the delay to the train you ended up catching (i.e. relative to its booked timetable). Given that it sounds like this was an LNER train, it would be LNER you'd claim from; this may seem unfair on them, but that's sometimes how Delay Repay ends up working out for train companies - it tends to balance out overall.

It would be more difficult to claim Delay Repay based on your original booked timings, but my view is that the rail industry's attempts to limit Delay Repay to whichever timetable they feel like running on the day are not legally effective given the context of it being a consumer contract. Otherwise it effectively leaves a huge and unacceptable imbalance in the respective contractual rights and obligations - you have to stick to your booked train and can't refund your ticket if you change your plans, but the rail operator can unilaterally change the schedule you booked on without any compensation, and often with little to no effective notice (or notice period).

It'd be an uphill battle involving potential recourse to the Rail Ombudsman and perhaps even the Courts, but if the amount in question is substantial (i.e. the difference between the Delay Repay you can claim from LNER and what you ought be able to claim from Avanti) then this might prove worthwhile. I'd certainly be happy to suggest next steps if that's an avenue you'd like to pursue.

 

[tram21]

Surely if your LNER train was over 2 hours late, you just claim delay repay from them using your normal ticket, and they should accept that, as its a valid ticket on their trains.

It's irrelevant the Avanti strike was on, apart from the fact that the ticket acceptance was in place. You shouldn't need to complicate things by arguing things like your original itinerary if your LNER train was over 2 hours late.