Is Delay repay applicable on an Advance Ticket purchased before the strikes were announced?

[Gnasher11]

Evening all,

I had an advanced e-ticket for the 14:15 from Penzance to Paddington on 21st November (booked months ago) When I realised that it was a strike day I made a point of checking the running of the trains throughout the day and everything seemed OK. When I got to Penzance station at 13:15 they had literally just announced that the 14:15 would now terminate at Westbury...I spoke to the ticket office staff who advised that I had just missed the last Plymouth bound train that would make a through connection for Paddington and that Exeter to Waterloo option was out due to a landslide and other problems...they gave me a piece of paper which they stamped to say valid for travel 22nd November.

My question is, I lost a days wages due to this, so can I claim any form of Delay Repay bearing in mind that I subsequently used the ticket the following day (Challenged by ticket checker on Train who said it wasn't valid, so I pointed her to the GWR Website that clearly stated that tickets for the 21st would be valid until the 23rd....she then grumpily agreed that I could stay on her train!)

In theory I was delayed by 24 hours, but would the system see it like that? I'm guessing if I did submit a claim it would need to be with an explanatory letter?

Apologies if this has been covered before, I did a brief search and was unable to find anything that seemed relevant.

Be interested in your thoughts.

 

[Watershed]

Evening all,

I had an advanced e-ticket for the 14:15 from Penzance to Paddington on 21st November (booked months ago) When I realised that it was a strike day I made a point of checking the running of the trains throughout the day and everything seemed OK. When I got to Penzance station at 13:15 they had literally just announced that the 14:15 would now terminate at Westbury...I spoke to the ticket office staff who advised that I had just missed the last Plymouth bound train that would make a through connection for Paddington and that Exeter to Waterloo option was out due to a landslide and other problems...they gave me a piece of paper which they stamped to say valid for travel 22nd November.

My question is, I lost a days wages due to this, so can I claim any form of Delay Repay bearing in mind that I subsequently used the ticket the following day (Challenged by ticket checker on Train who said it wasn't valid, so I pointed her to the GWR Website that clearly stated that tickets for the 21st would be valid until the 23rd....she then grumpily agreed that I could stay on her train!)

In theory I was delayed by 24 hours, but would the system see it like that? I'm guessing if I did submit a claim it would need to be with an explanatory letter?

Apologies if this has been covered before, I did a brief search and was unable to find anything that seemed relevant.

Be interested in your thoughts.

There's actually been numerous threads about this sort of issue on the forum over recent months, but the forum software's search function isn't brilliant, so I'm not entirely surprised you haven't been able to find them. Searching on Google with the addition "site:railforums.co.uk" might help.

In short, the rail industry's position is that it can, unilaterally and without giving notice, change the timetable to whatever it feels like, and delay compensation is then based on the timetable that is advertised at National Rail Enquiries (NRE) at 10pm the night before.

Whilst it has long been the case that compensation hasn't been paid for any delay caused by planned engineering works, this latest development has only come around this year with introduction of the term "Published Timetable of the Day" (PToD - as if the industry were some sort of restaurant!) in the National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCoT).

Needless to say, there are numerous problems with this, and I (and others) have grave doubts that the purported exclusions from delay compensation are in any way enforceable - particularly given the application of consumer and contract law.

Since December 2019, domestic rail travel has also fallen under the Passenger Rights and Obligations Regulation (PRO), which provides the right to a lower level of compensation than the usual Delay Repay - but importantly, disallows any attempt by conditions of carriage to exclude or limit such rights (such as through the PToD concept).

Unfortunately, most operators are handling claims on the basis of the PToD and are ignoring the PRO, and so you may face an uphill battle getting the compensation you are rightly owed.

So by all means put in a claim - but be prepared for it to be rejected, and to then have to decide whether it's worth your time and effort pursuing it further.