GWR Delay Repay Questions

[Essexman]

Last week I travelled from Paddington to Torquay and back.
Outward the train arrived 14 minutes and 40 seconds late (by PIS screen).
Return it was 59 minutes and 47 seconds (by PIS screen).
Realtime trains shows arrival slightly earlier – ¼ or ½ minute after the 14 / 59 minutes.

GWR have turned down delay repay outward and given me 50% refund for 30 – 59 minutes return.

Questions –

Should the delay be based on PIS screen time (which matched my phone)?

Should delays be rounded to nearest minute?
This would seem reasonable as they say 30 – 59 minutes or 60 – 119 minutes. No mention of seconds so surely 59 minutes 47 seconds should be rounded up to 60 minutes.

Is there any point in appealing?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Last week I travelled from Paddington to Torquay and back.
Outward the train arrived 14 minutes and 40 seconds late (by PIS screen).
Return it was 59 minutes and 47 seconds (by PIS screen).
Realtime trains shows arrival slightly earlier – ¼ or ½ minute after the 14 / 59 minutes.

GWR have turned down delay repay outward and given me 50% refund for 30 – 59 minutes return.

Questions –

Should the delay be based on PIS screen time (which matched my phone)?

Should delays be rounded to nearest minute?
This would seem reasonable as they say 30 – 59 minutes or 60 – 119 minutes. No mention of seconds so surely 59 minutes 47 seconds should be rounded up to 60 minutes.

Is there any point in appealing?

With respect, there's two potential issues here:

• what should happen - which is a matter for chin stroking and considering what's right as a matter of principle, and where there will be all sorts of answers
• what does happen - which (good news) has fairly clear answers that (bad news) may not support what the OP wants

I'll not venture into 'should', but for the 'does', my understanding is that

• delay repay is based on the information readily available to the railway rather than a single stated system: on occasion we have seen some success on challenging this because the delay before the passenger could disembark was greater than that recorded for the train arriving at the platform, but this is not invariably successful, and
• delays are not rounded to the nearest minute: rather, they are what they are. And in fairness, if a delay of 59 minutes and 30 seconds was rounded up to 60 minutes, I can then imagine arguments about whether 59 minutes should be rounded up to the nearest hour. Ultimately, any system will have clear break points and there will always be someone who is just on the wrong side of the break point. So
• No, I don't think there is any point in appealing. By the PIS screen and your phone, you were not delayed sufficiently on the outward journey to claim Delay Repay, and on the return by the same measure you fell into the sub 1 hour category. Your claim has been correctly paid.

 

[Essexman]

Thanks
So no rounding to nearest minute then which is a shame in my case.
Had the return not skipped Hungerford & Newbury I'd have easily been over the hour.

 

[Kite159]

Cases like this I agree with @Bletchleyite the thresholds should be set at 14, 29 & 59 minutes but advertised as 15, 30 & 60 minutes because just because a train arrived 30 seconds early making the delay 59 minutes 30 seconds, every train arrives 30 seconds early due to allowances within the timetable. That is what a more customer focused industry would do.

Also, would cater for the edge cases where the system says the train has arrived when it's pulling into the station and doors haven't been released.

Just one of those things sadly, just remember the next time you get delayed by 15 minutes to put a claim in, even if it's just for peanuts and maybe select a postal method of delivery