Delay Repay - who should pay.

[EasyRider]

Great Western Chocolate Teapot Company have rejected my delay repay claim and appeal saying I should claim from Southern ( - register with Southern, complete claim form again, attach ticket image again - why?!).

Are they correct?

Scheduled journey:

Sunday 13/7/25
Depart Brighton 1700
Depart Fareham 1834
Arrive Bristol TM 2040

Actual journey:

Left Brighton late and by Fareham the Cardiff train was in front of us. Asked guard who advised staying on until Southampton.

Cardiff train was held at SH to make the connection (it was the only train to Cardiff that GWR were managing to run that evening).

Got on Cardiff train only to hear driver apologising that he was unable continue due to being unwell. Apparently the aircon on the train had failed and his cab was at 40C. Fortunately an ambulance crew soon arrived and tended to the driver on the platform.

All passengers disembark and travel via Reading arriving Bristol TM 2246.
I've had four previous claims where GWR have tried to fob me off to another TOC,; all were paid on appeal. This one had me wondering if Southern should pay.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Belperpete]

My understanding is that TOCs should forward the delay repay claim on, not tell you to do it yourself. I have had other TOCs forward claims on. Question to others: shouldn't GW be doing this? If they take a long time to decide that another TOC is responsible, you may have little to no time left to put in a claim yourself to that other TOC.

As to the claim itself, the information that you enter on the DR form is your proposed itinerary - you do not enter how you actually got to your destination. The only information required about your actual journey is how late you actually got to your destination. And as I understand it, it is the first TOC that materially delays you that is responsible for paying DR.

Your itinerary shows a connection at Fareham, however from what you say, the Southern service arrived at Fareham too late to make that connection. As the Southern service was therefore the first one to delay you sufficiently to disrupt your itinerary, I believe that Southern is therefore the one you should claim from. That you were subsequently delayed much more seriously by GWR is irrelevant.

 

[AlterEgo]

Southern fouled your connection first causing the first delay, and should pay. The rest is irrelevant.

 

[EasyRider]

Thank you for the helpful replies. GWR forwarded my contact details to Southern but then I had to register with the Southern website and re-enter the claim. It's just another hurdle to reduce the numbers of people that actually make a successful claiim.

Sometimes it's easy to think that the British rail system is designed to drive people off the rails and on to the roads.

 

[Belperpete]

Thank you for the helpful replies. GWR forwarded my contact details to Southern but then I had to register with the Southern website and re-enter the claim. It's just another hurdle to reduce the numbers of people that actually make a successful claiim.

Who told you that you had to re-enter the claim, GWR or Southern? Or did you just assume that this was necessary?

 

[Vexed]

Southern fouled your connection first causing the first delay, and should pay. The rest is irrelevant.

Did they though? The OP took mitigating action (staying on the Southern train to Southampton instead of Fareham) which meant they did make the connection as it was held (assuming SH is Southampton), then admittedly cancelled once the OP made it.

Cardiff train was held at SH to make the connection (it was the only train to Cardiff that GWR were managing to run that evening)

It's a tough one though with the argument about theoretical minimum connection times and actual achieved connections. My view of the OP's account (I haven't looked at live running info) is that GWR made the first material delay and therefore should be on the hook for Delay Repay.

My understanding is that TOCs should forward the delay repay claim on, not tell you to do it yourself. I have had other TOCs forward claims on.

Who told you that you had to re-enter the claim, GWR or Southern? Or did you just assume that this was necessary?

The last time I had a claim forwarded to Thameslink/GTR, I got an email from them saying it needed to be re-submitted. If their process hasn't changed in the last 6 moths then I assume the OP got an email from GTR Southern saying they had to manually resubmit their claim to them.

My bold in the quote from the email I got 6 months ago

Dear Customer

We have recently received a request from another train operator regarding a request that you have made for Delay Repay compensation, we believe that you should have already been made aware that your contact details have been passed on to us.

We’re sorry to learn that your journey may have been disrupted and that any delay may have been caused by our services.

So that we can look into your journey and award any compensation that might be owed, we will require you to submit your claim directly with us. The easiest and quickest way is to claim online through the Delay Repay section of our website at https://delayrepay.thameslinkrailway.com/.

Alternatively, should you wish, you can also pick up a postal form at any of our stations or download this directly from our website. The link to our form can be found under the ‘Applying by post’ section at https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/help-and-support/journey-problems/delay-repay.

Please ensure that you attach an image of the ticket used to travel and that your claim reaches us within 28 days of your original travel date. If the date that you originally travelled was more than 28 days ago, please contact us for further information on how to submit your claim. If you no longer have access to your ticket, please contact our customer services team so that they can offer you further guidance on how to proceed with your claim.

Kind regards,
Govia Thameslink Railway Customer Relations

Question to others: shouldn't GW be doing this? If they take a long time to decide that another TOC is responsible, you may have little to no time left to put in a claim yourself to that other TOC.

Luckily GTR address this in the final paragraph of the email I quoted above. Still not great to have to do a manual claim to customer services.

 

[AlterEgo]

Did they though? The OP took mitigating action (staying on the Southern train to Southampton instead of Fareham) which meant they did make the connection as it was held (assuming SH is Southampton), then admittedly cancelled once the OP made it.

Not relevant. Southern fouled the connection first, this is not in dispute. Delay Repay is a "blind" process.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not relevant. Southern fouled the connection first, this is not in dispute. Delay Repay is a "blind" process.

My experience involving a specific connection a few times where I shouldn't have been able to make it but due to sensible positioning by a door I did (twice) was that as soon as a delay takes the connection time at a given station down below the minimum to the scheduled (not actual) time of the connecting train it's assumed you missed it even if you in fact didn't.

 

[Mainline421]

My experience involving a specific connection a few times where I shouldn't have been able to make it but due to sensible positioning by a door I did (twice) was that as soon as a delay takes the connection time at a given station down below the minimum to the scheduled (not actual) time of the connecting train it's assumed you missed it even if you in fact didn't.

That's my interpretation, but Avanti did recently try taking the position that 11 minutes would have been sufficient to make the (cancelled) TfW connection at New Street and forwarded the claim to them. Although it was eventually was paid by Avanti on appeal.

 

[enginedin]

Perhaps this should now be split into another thread of delay repay stories... but the weirdest one I've had is to arrive into Crewe on an Avanti Service late, meaning there was only a 9 minute connection time at Crewe (rather than ~15 - the minimum at Crewe is 10).

My onward TfW service was cancelled because of a points failure. I submitted a claim to TfW, which they rejected, on the grounds that Avanti hadn't met the minimum connection time, despite the fact it was their service that was cancelled! (in hindsight, seeing that Delay Repay is a "Blind" Process, this kind of makes sense).

They did forward to Avanti, who did pay out. My colleague who was on the same service appealed the TfW rejection, and they did pay out to him

 

[Belperpete]

Did they though? The OP took mitigating action (staying on the Southern train to Southampton instead of Fareham) which meant they did make the connection as it was held (assuming SH is Southampton), then admittedly cancelled once the OP made it.

Yes. The connection on the planned itinerary was at Fareham, and that connection was broken. What happens after that is irrelevant as far as determining which TOC is responsible for paying up.

GWR held their train at Southampton to allow passengers to make a connection there. However, that is irrelevant as a change at Southampton was not on the itinerary. And it would surely be wrong if this good dead should then make GWR responsible for all subsequent Delay Repay.

The last time I had a claim forwarded to Thameslink/GTR, I got an email from them saying it needed to be re-submitted. If their process hasn't changed in the last 6 moths then I assume the OP got an email from GTR Southern saying they had to manually resubmit their claim to them.

Luckily GTR address this in the final paragraph of the email I quoted above. Still not great to have to do a manual claim to customer services.

The last time I had a claim forwarded to another TOC (non GTR), it was processed and paid without me needing to re-submit it. Okay GTR cover how to deal with being over the time limit and if you have lost the ticket, but what if after a month you can't remember your original itinerary? One of the problems with many DR sites is that you are given no record of what you have submitted.

Are any other TOCs insisting on people having to resubmit a forwarded claim?