Delay Repay

[worried12345]

Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I travelled from Edinburgh to Stockport, and then back again. My outbound journal was the transpennine 16:11 on the 12th to Manchester Picadilly, with a short connection to Stockport operated by Northern (though i’m not sure which service I actually got on since the first train was late). My return was at 11:57 on the 15th, with the Stockport to Manchester leg operated by Avanti, and then the Transpennine 12:22 to Edinburgh from Manchester. My ticket was a return with a railcard, totalling £66.10.

Both legs of the journey were delayed. By my estimation was just over 30 minutes late for the first leg and about 20 minutes late on the return. That being said, I can’t quite remember when I actually arrived on either side so I largely went by the trainpal apps timings. I logged two separate delay repay claims yesterday with Avanti. I now realised I should have logged the claims with transpennine since they operate the Manchester-Edinburgh part of the journey.

Rather confusingly, I’ve since had multiple emails from both transpennine and avanti saying that my claim had been denied, but then an email from avanti saying that my train was delayed by 2 hours meaning that i’ll receive a full refund. This both seems like more of a refund than I should have gotten (neither of the trains were that late), and also slightly confusing that Avanti are paying rather than transpennine given my mistake when making the claim. I’m slightly worried that they’re going to ask for it back in the future. I’ll include all screenshots below!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jul 2025 ==

Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I travelled from Edinburgh to Stockport, and then back again. My outbound journal was the transpennine 16:11 on the 12th to Manchester Picadilly, with a short connection to Stockport operated by Northern (though i’m not sure which service I actually got on since the first train was late). My return was at 11:57 on the 15th, with the Stockport to Manchester leg operated by Avanti, and then the Transpennine 12:22 to Edinburgh from Manchester. My ticket was a return with a railcard, totalling £66.10.

Both legs of the journey were delayed. By my estimation was just over 30 minutes late for the first leg and about 20 minutes late on the return. That being said, I can’t quite remember when I actually arrived on either side so I largely went by the trainpal apps timings. I logged two separate delay repay claims yesterday with Avanti. I now realised I should have logged the claims with transpennine since they operate the Manchester-Edinburgh part of the journey.

Rather confusingly, I’ve since had multiple emails from both transpennine and avanti saying that my claim had been denied, but then an email from avanti saying that my train was delayed by 2 hours meaning that i’ll receive a full refund. This both seems like more of a refund than I should have gotten (neither of the trains were that late), and also slightly confusing that Avanti are paying rather than transpennine given my mistake when making the claim. I’m slightly worried that they’re going to ask for it back in the future. I’ll include all screenshots below!

Actually - I have just remembered that the Avanti part of my journey (11:57 Stockport to Manchester on the 15th) was so late that I had to get on a different service to avoid missing my connection in Manchester. I wonder whether they’re taking this into account and so covering the whole ticket.

 

[fandroid]

Well! It's novel of Avanti to over-offer on Delay Repay.

I think the best thing is for the experts on here to dig out the actual timings of the trains you used. Then you should resubmit with that info. You had flexible tickets, so you were able to start your journey at Stockport on the best train that turned up for you on the day.

 

[Belperpete]

For your return journey, it looks like Avanti have ignored the time you say you were delayed, and have done their own calculation. This is not unusual. This will likely have been based on you catching their train, and following the same itinerary, but using actual train running times. They have no knowledge of what trains you actually caught, as they don't ask for that information on the DR form. So it is highly unlikely that they will ask for the money back, and I have never heard of them ever doing so.

For your outward journey, it looks like Avanti have realised that you were actually delayed by TPE, so have correctly passed your claim onto them. In their response, when TPE say "we have already compensated you" it looks like they are using the royal "we", as it was actually Avanti who have already compensated you. There is a clause in the DR conditions, that most TOCs don't actually mention on their DR pages, that says that you shouldn't receive compensation for more than the value of the ticket. It looks to me like TPE know that Avanti have given you compensation of 100% of the ticket price for the return journey, so you are not entitled to anything more.

You could try appealing the TPE decision on the basis that TPE have not already compensated you. However, it looks like TPE know about the Avanti payment, and that you have therefore already received all the compensation you are due for that ticket. I suspect that TPE might not have known about the Avanti payment if you had submitted the claim for the outward journey direct to TPE.

If you really have time to waste, you could appeal the Avanti compensation on the basis that you weren't actually delayed by 2 hours. And once Avanti have decided on that, you could then appeal the TPE decision, on the basis that you hadn't already received full compensation. However, I suspect that by the time Avanti have considered your appeal to them, you could be out of time for appealing the TPE decision.

 

[Elecman]

For your return journey, it looks like Avanti have ignored the time you say you were delayed, and have done their own calculation. This is not unusual. This will likely have been based on you catching their train, and following the same itinerary, but using actual train running times. They have no knowledge of what trains you actually caught, as they don't ask for that information on the DR form. So it is highly unlikely that they will ask for the money back, and I have never heard of them ever doing so.

For your outward journey, it looks like Avanti have realised that you were actually delayed by TPE, so have correctly passed your claim onto them. In their response, when TPE say "we have already compensated you" it looks like they are using the royal "we", as it was actually Avanti who have already compensated you. There is a clause in the DR conditions, that most TOCs don't actually mention on their DR pages, that says that you shouldn't receive compensation for more than the value of the ticket. It looks to me like TPE know that Avanti have given you compensation of 100% of the ticket price for the return journey, so you are not entitled to anything more.

You could try appealing the TPE decision on the basis that TPE have not already compensated you. However, it looks like TPE know about the Avanti payment, and that you have therefore already received all the compensation you are due for that ticket. I suspect that TPE might not have known about the Avanti payment if you had submitted the claim for the outward journey direct to TPE.

If you really have time to waste, you could appeal the Avanti compensation on the basis that you weren't actually delayed by 2 hours. And once Avanti have decided on that, you could then appeal the TPE decision, on the basis that you hadn't already received full compensation. However, I suspect that by the time Avanti have considered your appeal to them, you could be out of time for appealing the TPE decision.

Avanti have asked me to return an overpayment when they did exactly that