Delay Repay when using an Oystercard+Normal National Rail Ticket

[Lime]

Hi All,

As many others I am sure have experienced before, I was delayed on my journey due to the flooding at Manchester over the weekend coming back from London from Christmas. I was wondering if anyone was aware of how to, or if it is even possible to, claim delay repay for the oyster fare section of a journey when it is used to travel from a national rail station, for example from Richmond or Putney, to Waterloo or Vauxhall and onwards to Euston before getting an Avanti up to Manchester? Or is this considered a seperate journey unless the tickets are purchased together? An Example of this would be:

Putney->Vauxhall (oyser part a)
Vauxhall->Euston by victoria line (oyster part b)
This makes one fare on my oyster card

Euston->Manchester Picadilly
This makes up the second part of the journey with an advance single ticket

I only ask as with most other split ticketing this would be considered one journey for delay repay purposes, however the london terminal situation does make things a bit more difficult to figure out when using oyster.

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice, or suggestions and Happy New Year!

 

[jfollows]

If you were delayed on the Putney-Vauxhall leg, you claim Delay Repay against the delay on arriving in Manchester from the operator of the train that delayed you. The only condition is that you allowed more than the minimum connection time Vauxhall-Euston. Oyster does not come into it.

 

[Lime]

I got delayed on the Euston->Manchester leg, but Avanti don't seem to have an option anywhere for the oyster ticket like SWR do?

 

[jfollows]

Minimum time Vauxhall-Euston is, I think, 22+5+15=42 minutes between booked arrival time at Vauxhall and booked departure time from Euston. Sometimes 5 minutes more, see https://www.brtimes.com/!board?stn=VXH&show=info&date=20250106

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jan 2025 ==

If you’re delayed on the last leg only you have a simple claim against Avanti. You may have to escalate to a human after initial rejection. Your journey is still Putney-Manchester.

 

[Lime]

The only options are Paper ticket, e-ticket/m-ticket, Avanti Smartcard, and non-avanti smart card but it doesn't seem to accept my oyster number for non-avanti smart card. SWR usually have an oyster option here since they operate many oyster pay as you go valid services

 

[jfollows]

The only options are Paper ticket, e-ticket/m-ticket, Avanti Smartcard, and non-avanti smart card but it doesn't seem to accept my oyster number for non-avanti smart card. SWR usually have an oyster option here since they operate many oyster pay as you go valid services

OK, apologies, others will have to advise on how best to claim here.

 

[Lime]

No worries, I appreciate the help nonetheless!

 

[Haywain]

The only options are Paper ticket, e-ticket/m-ticket, Avanti Smartcard, and non-avanti smart card

As you are using a mixture, I think it would be best to select the paper ticket option. This will allow you to submit an image of your Oyster account with the journey and fare details. If you held an eTicket for Euston to Manchester you will need to submit an image of the pdf for that.

 

[Lime]

As you are using a mixture, I think it would be best to select the paper ticket option. This will allow you to submit an image of your Oyster account with the journey and fare details. If you held an eTicket for Euston to Manchester you will need to submit an image of the pdf for that.

Thanks, I will try this option and let everyone know if this works.

 

[Haywain]

Thanks, I will try this option and let everyone know if this works.

Just to add that I can't remember if the Avanti site will let you submit more than one image. If not you will need both items in one image.

 

[redreni]

There's also a downloadable form which can be printed and sent to the Freepost address on the form.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I imagine the vast majority of Delay Repay claimaints in this situation would just put in a claim for the delayed Euston-Manchester journey, hence this claim will be more unusual for Avanti.

 

[redreni]

Do let us know how you get on.

Those of us who make intercity journeys starting with a local leg within London face a dilemma: more and more Advances seem to be priced so that they are either not available with a connecting leg, or so that it's cheaper to book from the London Terminal and use Oyster or Contactless to get there. It is possible, of course, to split using paper tickets, but when you're starting in London the paper ticket for the local leg is generally much more expensive than Oyster or Contactless.

I understand, therefore, why people split between PAYG for the local leg and an Advance for the Intercity leg, but it does mean you run up against TOCs who aren't expecting the local leg to be included in a delay repay claim. More importantly, perhaps, they aren't expecting passengers who are delayed on a local leg for which they have paid on Oyster or Contactless to request to be carried on the next train if the delay causes them to miss their connection.

So I'm definitely keen to hear about forum members' experiences of how TOCs have dealt with situations like these!

 

[Haywain]

I don't think there is anything terribly unusual about this claim. I have made claims from Avanti where the last part of my journey has been made using a free pass, and they have still paid out without any argument (in a case where their delay of over 15 minutes led into further disruption on the next TOC becoming an overall delay of over 30 minutes).

 

[Lime]

In the end it was a case of uploading a screenshot of your oyster PAYG receipt to the paper ticket form with the reference 00000. I spoke to the customer team and they say they will discuss it with Avanti management to introduce oyster/contactless ticket options to the delay repay process to make it smoother for customers.

This is good news, especially as further areas of England, notable Manchester, start to introduce contactless PAYG fares for local routes from 2026 (between Glossop and Manchester and Stalybridge and Manchester will start in 2025 and be complete in 2026, eight more commuter lines joining in 2028 and all Greater Manchester Trains joining by 2030), I expect it will become more and more common. This is mostly beyond the scope of Avanti's contract admittedly however.