Delay repay - two questions

[Bungle]

Hi everyone. Mrs Bungle travelled Sutton Coldfield to Cardiff and return yesterday.

Tickets were split:
- Sutton Coldfield - Cheltenham, Off Peak Return
- Cheltenham - Cardiff Central, Anytime Day Return.

Travel was with WMR on the Cross City, and CrossCountry on the direct Birmingham-Cardiff (and vice versa.)

Tickets were bought via Avanti as my wife has that app on her phone already, and it was the easiest option (XC were only offering M-Ticket for the second leg, which was not acceptable.)

On the return journey, the chosen journey was 20:00 Cardiff-Birmingham arriving 22:06, then connecting on to the next valid connection to Sutton Coldfield - departing 22:16, arriving 22:36.

The CrossCountry ran on time at first, but then was held at Kings Norton due to disruption and congestion in Birmingham, and crawled signal to signal all the way to New Street, arriving at 22:41.

Major disruption on the Cross City with many cancelled trains resulted in the next available connection being the heavily-delayed 22:08 (2P67), originally Bromsgrove-Lichfield but actually operated Longbridge-Four Oaks, and running fast from New St - Sutton. This departed at 23:27 (1hr 19 late!) and arrived in Sutton at 23:39 - total delay to my wife therefore being 1hr 3mins.

The two questions are:
- Who do we submit the Delay Repay claim to - is it CrossCountry or WMR? Both trains were delayed, and both could be held responsible although the worst disrupted was the WMR one.
- As the “journey” was Cardiff - Sutton, can the claim be submitted for the complete journey (ie 50% of both return tickets?) Or, as I suspect is more likely and particularly as the XC was on time to Cheltenham, can we only claim for the return portion of the Cheltenham - Sutton ticket?

Bit of a complicated one to my mind and would appreciate any advice! Thanks.

 

[jfollows]

Claim for the entire Cardiff to Sutton Coldfield from Cross Country. Because XC first delayed you, you claim from them. Use the itinerary from Avanti in your claim. 50% of the return ticket cost.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Concur with @jfollows. It's usually the case that the 'Delay Repay' claim should always be made from the train company that caused the initial delay, in the circumstances that the OP describes, that would be Cross Country.

However, at Birmingham New Street, the minimum connection time is 12 minutes, so for a scheduled 2206 arrival, the 2216 departure from Birmingham New Street onwards to Sutton Coldfield wasn't officially a valid connection. Reckon that the overall delay if travelling on the next valid connection (= 2236?) is maybe 42 mins, not 1 hr 3 mins and therefore only a 25% refund is due.

Anyone agree/disagree?

 

[toffeedanish]

Delay repay applies to the rail portion of a journey, no matter how many tickets were purchased to enable it.

Claim from XC. The average person should not be expected to work out whether a connection has not in fact been missed because a subsequent train didn't run or has been heavily delayed.

Edit: Not disagreeing with you, Mcr Warrior. Just posted at the same time.

 

[jfollows]

Concur with @jfollows. It's usually the case that the 'Delay Repay' claim should always be made from the train company that caused the initial delay, in the circumstances that the OP describes, that would be Cross Country.

However, at Birmingham New Street, the minimum connection time is 12 minutes, so for a scheduled 2206 arrival, the 2216 departure from Birmingham New Street onwards to Sutton Coldfield wasn't officially a valid connection. Reckon that the overall delay travelling on the next valid connection (= 2236?) is maybe 42 mins, not 1 hr 3 mins and therefore only a 25% refund is due.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Agreed, the original poster said “next valid connection” but you rightly point out that it wasn’t. I didn’t check.

 

[Bungle]

It's usually the case that you should claim from the train company that caused the initial delay, in the circumstances that you describe, that would be Cross Country.

However, at Birmingham New Street, the minimum connection time is 12 minutes, so for a scheduled 2206 arrival, the 2216 departure from Birmingham New Street onwards to Sutton Coldfield wasn't officially a valid connection. Reckon that the overall delay travelling on the next valid connection (2236?) is maybe 42 mins, not 1 hr 3 mins and therefore only a 25% refund is due.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Sorry, this is my mistake.

The end to end journey times I quoted were correct, but the connection was supposed to be made at University, not New St - where obviously the connection time is much shorter. So the journey is still valid and the end result is the same.

Mrs Bungle preferred to change at New St as it’s a busier station with more staff about, she was travelling alone and it was late at night.

 

[jfollows]

Sorry, this is my mistake.

The end to end journey times I quoted were correct, but the connection was supposed to be made at University, not New St - where obviously the connection time is much shorter. So the journey is still valid and the end result is the same.

Mrs Bungle preferred to change at New St as it’s a busier station with more staff about, she was travelling alone and it was late at night.

As I said, if you have an itinerary which shows that valid route, use it in your claim.

 

[Bungle]

I just checked for next Saturday as a comparison and it throws up that exact same journey. So yes, it will be valid. Thanks very much for your help everyone - I’ll report back the result of the claim when I hear.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I just checked for next Saturday as a comparison and it throws up that exact same journey. So yes, it will be valid. Thanks very much for your help everyone - I’ll report back the result of the claim when I hear.

That should double the amount of 'Delay Repay' due!