Delay Repay on a looped back journey

[styles]

This is somewhat hypothetical but it did nearly happen to me this week so I'd be interested to know.

If I have an Advance fare from A to C, and C to A; then an Anytime Day Return from C to B back to C; where B is between A and C; what happens if the leg from C back to A is delayed?

So a simple example -

Glasgow to Wick Advance. Trains are on time.
Wick to Glasgow Anytime Single
Forsinard to Wick Anytime Day Return

So the journey goes Glasgow to Wick, then Wick to Forsinard, break journey here, Forsinard to Wick, then Wick back to Glasgow.

If a leg between Wick and Glasgow is delayed on the return, can the cost of the Anytime Day Return be included, on the basis that the journey is merely broken at Forsinard, and the combination of the Anytime Day Return and the Anytime Single are part of the same journey?

This may be a little more relevant when the wait at Forsinard before heading back north is a matter of minutes (let's assume with the minimum connection time)?

 

[Watershed]

On the one hand, there isn't anything in the NRCoT that defines what a journey is, or says that a journey comprising multiple tickets can't include double-backs. For some journeys, doubling back is unavoidable.

However, calling a second time at your origin is a little more nuanced as it could be suggested that you are not really making one journey, but two.

Given the circumstances of the journey you're describing, I think you'd struggle to make a claim for an ostensible Wick to Glasgow via Forsinard and Wick journey (or even Forsinard to Glasgow via Wick).

It obviously wouldn't be a journey option that would come up in the Delay Repay portal. So you'd be having to submit a manual claim, and customer services would naturally be confused by what you're saying.

 

[Belperpete]

I think that you are over thinking this. If you have one ticket from X to Y, and another ticket from Y to Z, then the NRCoT entitles you to have your journey from X to Z considered as one journey for delay repay purposes. It makes no difference if geographically X happens to lie between Y and Z or not, there is nothing in the NRCoT that I am aware of that excludes such.

There could be very good reasons for doubling back. In some cases, it might be the only way of making the journey. Or you might simply want to visit both places, and that is the easiest or most economical way of doing it.