Delay repay on a diverted journey

[blimmo]

Inspired by this thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/delay-repay-getting-full-amount.297546

Suppose you travel on a Euston to Glasgow train via the Trent valley which is 65 mins delayed passing rugby and diverted via Birmingham. At Birmingham you are informed you will be even more delayed and therefore give up and get alternative transport to Glasgow. How is delay repay calculated? There is no timetabled arrival time since the train was never intended to go to Birmingham but clearly you have been significantly delayed.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is this scenario 'Delay Repay' or maybe a partway abandoned rail journey?

 

[blimmo]

I was under the impression that to abandon your journey you must return to your origin (or else the OP in the linked thread would be eligible)

 

[30907]

I was under the impression that to abandon your journey you must return to your origin (or else the OP in the linked thread would be eligible)

True. You would claim DR on the basis of your actual arrival at Glasgow Central. Even better if you can evidence it.
The hypothetical time (via RTT or...) should be OK in practice IMO as an alternative, though it may not be strictly correct.

Definitely one to use email for not online.

 

[blimmo]

The OP in the linked thread is being advised that their delay repay entitlement is based on the arrival time at the point they stopped using the train.

It is possible (likely even) that you never actually go to Glasgow Central (your destination is somewhere on the south side of Glasgow and your alternative transport goes there directly).

To be clear this has not actually happened, I'm just interested in what people think the correct application of the rules would be.

 

[The exile]

True. You would claim DR on the basis of your actual arrival at Glasgow Central. Even better if you can evidence it.
The hypothetical time (via RTT or...) should be OK in practice IMO as an alternative, though it may not be strictly correct.

Surely unless you have proof that you were advised officially to complete the journey by alternative means the latest “claimable” arrival is the actual time the train you abandoned got in?

 

[blimmo]

To make the hypothetical even harder let's say the train is cancelled at Preston so never makes it to Glasgow in the end.

 

[Bletchleyite]

To make the hypothetical even harder let's say the train is cancelled at Preston so never makes it to Glasgow in the end.

Does the passenger proceed to Glasgow by another means, e.g. a RRB or taxi, or do they decide to finish completely at Preston?

If the former, it'd be actual vs. timetabled arrival at Glasgow.

If the latter, it's actual vs. timetabled arrival at Preston as the journey was ended short.

If the ticket didn't allow break of journey (as walk up fares from Euston to north of Preston don't), then there might be no entitlement at all because the journey made wasn't valid on the ticket! Now that's an odd technicality.

 

[blimmo]

Does the passenger proceed to Glasgow by another means, e.g. a RRB or taxi, or do they decide to finish completely at Preston?

They proceed to Glasgow but go to their ultimate destination in the suburbs and therefore have no arrival time at Glasgow Central to compare. Also the passenger isn't on the train at Preston since they gave up at Birmingham.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jan 2026 ==

If the ticket didn't allow break of journey (as walk up fares from Euston to north of Preston don't), then there might be no entitlement at all because the journey made wasn't valid on the ticket!

Damn I knew my example would run into some problem! Please ignore this quirk since there's plenty of examples where this wouldn't apply that I should've chosen instead.

 

[The exile]

To make the hypothetical even harder let's say the train is cancelled at Preston so never makes it to Glasgow in the end.

Passengers who stayed on the train till Preston would have still got to Glasgow eventually (and received appropriate DR) The person who voted with their feet would have to live with the consequence of their choice, I imagine.

 

[Belperpete]

Suppose you travel on a Euston to Glasgow train via the Trent valley which is 65 mins delayed passing rugby and diverted via Birmingham. At Birmingham you are informed you will be even more delayed and therefore give up and get alternative transport to Glasgow. How is delay repay calculated?

Are you asking what should you claim for, how will the TOC calculate it, or what are you entitled to? These may be three very different things.

And remember that you are only asked for your original itinerary, and how late you were delayed getting to your destination. How you actually got there is totally irrelevant. For example, if you chose to reroute yourself and got to your destination earlier, then you should claim for your actual arrival time, but will probably be paid for the time you would have got there if you had stuck with your original itinerary. On the other hand, if your rerouting ended up delaying you further, you can still claim for your actual arrival time, but again you will probably only be paid for the time you would have got there if you had stuck with your original itinerary.

If you decide to complete your journey by some other means, you have two options. You can either consider that as the means you used to complete your intended journey, and claim DR for the time you eventually arrived at your final destination. Or you can consider that you ended your journey short, claim DR for that short journey, and request a refund for the remainder. As far as I am aware, there is nothing in the NRCoT that mandates which option you take.

So, in your example, where you end up taking a taxi, you would be entitled to submit a claim based on the time you finally arrived in Glasgow Central - whether that is the same day, the next day or whenever is irrelevant, as you can't claim for anything over two hours.

 

[blimmo]

If you decide to complete your journey by some other means, you have two options. You can either consider that as the means you used to complete your intended journey, and claim DR for the time you eventually arrived at your final destination. Or you can consider that you ended your journey short, claim DR for that short journey, and request a refund for the remainder. As far as I am aware, there is nothing in the NRCoT that mandates which option you take.

This is explicitly not what is being recommended on the thread I linked at the top. There the OP is being advised that they only have a claim for the time they were delayed to the point where they abandoned the train.