Manchester disruption - correct delay repay etc?

[Fawkes Cat]

I was caught up in yesterday's disruption in Manchester. My planned journey home was

Manchester Oxford Road d 1811
Liverpool South Parkway a 1849

I would have been using the return portion of an off-peak return, cost £13.65 after applying a senior railcard

My actual journey was something like

Salford New Bailey Street d 1650 approx (bus 100, scheduled at 1643)
Warrington bus station a 1830 approx
Warrington Central d 1910 (scheduled 1844)
Liverpool South Parkway a 1936 (scheduled 1909)

I (partially) used the return portion of my ticket for Warrington - Parkway

This is clearly not an entirely satisfactory journey experience, although it ultimately met the priority of getting me home in time for tea and bed. So what would be the best way to claim money back from the railway?

For clarity, this is now hypothetical, as what I have done is to submit a delay repay claim for the Warrington - Parkway leg: since I got to Warrington Central in time for the (scheduled) 1844, and caught it albeit running late, I have claimed for a 15-30 minute delay. And while £1.71 isn't much, it has the benefit of being quick and easy to claim: given that (I think) that in practice I could only have claimed the maximum of what I paid for the fare it's not an amount I'm prepared to pursue any harder. But it would be nice to know what the optimum approach would have been.

Mods - As always, if this is in the wrong forum, please relocate appropriately.

 

[Deerfold]

Was there ticket acceptance on the bus?

Unless there was a train that would have got you to Warrington sooner, I'm not sure why you didn't claim for the whole journey.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I suspect the optimum approach would have been to show up to Oxford Road at about 1800 oblivious to it all and then and only then go on to do what you did. That would almost certainly give rise to a claim of at least an hour, possibly two. Of course you'd have got home late.

Unfortunately Delay Repay penalises people (in effect) who are sensible and travel early despite them still losing the same amount of time.

I'd agree with it being a 15 minute claim as it was, though if it was Avanti or TPE I'd be unsurprised if they end up paying you two hours regardless of what you claimed, it's happened to me several times. Depending on your conscience you may elect to pay the difference back or not - TPE do have a mechanism to do so if you contact customer services.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Aug 2026 ==

Was there ticket acceptance on the bus?

Unless there was a train that would have got you to Warrington sooner, I'm not sure why you didn't claim for the whole journey.

If there wasn't acceptance it's in effect a start-short, which is the basis on which it was claimed. Though even if you don't consider it that way it's still a 15 minute payout because the only thing that counts is intended vs. actual arrival at the final destination - you get nothing at all for travelling early to avoid delay. This I consider unfair, but it is how the rules are.

If a walk up ticket was used I suppose the OP could consider that they had changed their mind and decided to travel earlier independent of the disruption, of course, that is down to their conscience. If Advances that would not work, however, though it might be worth trying it if a blanket lifting of restrictions had taken place. Could it also be seen that way if their train was cancelled (which it was) and they decided to use a train up to two hours early as a result, and that itinerary was then delayed?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Unfortunately Delay Repay penalises people (in effect) who are sensible and travel early despite them still losing the same amount of time.

Surely on the return portion of an Off Peak Return, the return time (in the afternoon) isn't set in stone, and the OP could always have gone for the 1711 from Manchester Oxford Road, and so, on that basis, was 100+ minutes late arriving Liverpool South Parkway?!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Surely on the return portion of an Off Peak Return, the return time (in the afternoon) isn't set in stone, and the OP could always have gone for the 1711 from Manchester Oxford Road, and so, on that basis, was 100+ minutes late arriving Liverpool South Parkway?!

I think that's a question for their conscience really. And I wouldn't seek to sway them either way - I can see both arguments.

Realistically with this sort of major disruption they will just be paid whatever they put in for. And it's not entirely unlikely if it's TPE or Avanti involved (same system) they just get paid 2 hours regardless of what they put in.