Delay Repay shouldn't cover extreme weather

[The Ham]

I love the quote about "rest assured you're covered no matter what". Why on earth would I "rest assured" that I'm going to get some of my money back? Personally I'm more interested in getting to the destination on time, not seeing what soft of freeby I can extract out of someone else.

I trust the train companies to get me where I'm going on time a lot more than I would an airline, and if they don't I'll get some of my money back with a much shorter delay.

 

[Scott M]

So, if you turn up at the station today and buy a ticket, then any Delay Repay is/should be measured against the emergency timetable, but if you bought a ticket a month ago Delay Repay should be against the planned timetable?

This is fair enough.

Because the railway promised to get the passenger to the destination at the specified time, and is responsible for ensuring that outcome or paying the relevant penalty.
It's not the passenger's fault the railway is insufficiently well engineered to withstand reasonably foreseable weather.

And if you give the industry an inch, they will start blaming all cancellations or delays they possibly can on "weather".
"Oh it was too rainy for us to send the workmen to fix it promptly"

I agree a lot with this.

FWIW, I put in a delay repay claim and XC did give me a full refund without any quarrels. Helped pay towards the coach journey I had to take due to my train being cancelled. I doubt such delay repay claims would bankrupt TOCs, as you'd hope TOCs have contingency funds in place for weather like this, as it is not unheard of.