Merseyrail delay repay

[user_of_rail]

Had a delayed journey Brunswick to Fitzwilliam, and the Brunswick to Liverpool South Parkway part of the journey, a rail replacement bus service was running and I missed my connection to the hourly service next part of my Journey so completed a delay repay claim on Merseyrail website, as my whole journey time was just over an hour longer than I had planned/booked.

Got the response back from them saying they only consider claims for tickets bought from them and I should take up any delay repay query with the retailer (in this case Trainpal, who in turn say I should take this up with the Rail Operator).

Sent my response back quoting Rail Ombudsman, The National Rail Conditions of Travel and National Rail website, and they've come back with an offer of 20% of the whole £23 'ish journey price.

I think their offer is fair, but not inline with any of the national guidance, I'm happy to just accept it - BUT reading lots of complaints about Merseyrail should I just force the issue and peruse this anyway to help get a precedence set for future complaints (or just take what I'm happy with and let others battle it out)?

 

[Gwr12345]

Did you submit a claim for a refund instead of delay repay by any chance?
Edit: Mind you, looking at the Merseyrail delay repay webpage, it's no at all clear, and it's merged delay repay and refunds, so it is quite possibly a mistake on Merseyrail's end.

 

[user_of_rail]

No, definitely used their 'delay-compensation-for-single-and-return-tickets' page and 'think' I had to just select Merseyrail stations in the selection of the journey but uploaded a single image of all tickets that I should have used - which the initial customer service response picked up on (detailed the entire journey in the initial response) and pointed out they hadn't sold them.

 

[M28361M]

Sent my response back quoting Rail Ombudsman, The National Rail Conditions of Travel and National Rail website, and they've come back with an offer of 20% of the whole £23 'ish journey price.

I think their offer is fair, but not inline with any of the national guidance, I'm happy to just accept it - BUT reading lots of complaints about Merseyrail should I just force the issue and peruse this anyway to help get a precedence set for future complaints (or just take what I'm happy with and let others battle it out)?

There was another thread here recently pointing out that 20% offered by Merseyrail is not in line with NRCOT which states a minimum of 50% is payable for a delay of 60 minutes. The poster there was going to go to the Rail Ombudsman as Merseyrail were refusing to budge. https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/merseyrail-delay-repay.260985/

 

[cool110]

Merseyrail are the only TOC left on the old Passenger Charter system, which has very different rules to "modern" Delay Repay. It's get very messy in these situations, especially because more recent changes to the NRCOT were written with DR in mind.

 

[ainsworth74]

Merseyrail are the only TOC left on the old Passenger Charter system, which has very different rules to "modern" Delay Repay. It's get very messy in these situations, especially because more recent changes to the NRCOT were written with DR in mind.

Though the passenger charter cannot over rule the NRCoT so they have to compensate in line with that as far as I'm aware...

33.3 Although the amount of compensation offered varies by Train Company, if you arrive 60 minutes or later at your destination station, you will, as a minimum, be entitled to compensation in accordance with the table below:

Ticket Held	Amount Payable
Single Ticket, or Return Ticket with delay on both the outward and return journey	50% of the price paid
Return Ticket with delay on outward or return journey	50% of the price paid for the relevant portion of the journey
Season Ticket	The discount or compensation arrangements in the relevant Train Company’s Passenger’s Charter apply

https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e8xgegruud3g/3Y9UXuFziljwsGFCUAwKAA/0aa50a101febffda28c070aae2572570/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel.pdf

They can be more generous than this (such as via proper Delay Repay) but they cannot be less generous than this!

 

[yorkie]

Though the passenger charter cannot over rule the NRCoT so they have to compensate in line with that as far as I'm aware...

https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e8xgegruud3g/3Y9UXuFziljwsGFCUAwKAA/0aa50a101febffda28c070aae2572570/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel.pdf

They can be more generous than this (such as via proper Delay Repay) but they cannot be less generous than this!

Absolutely spot-on.

(If only we had an effective ombudsman/regulator/watchdog who could actually do something about these issues...)

 

[user_of_rail]

Thanks M28361M, I think that was the main thread that prompted me to ask the question (join and post here) - I'll accept their offer of 20 percent - it's not what I think it should be but I've other priorities - my OP was to see if there was an effort to get them to conform to current regulations, which doesn't appear to be the case - but with any luck my OP will inspire some to question the original response they provide.

 

[user_of_rail]

Eventually refunded the 20% (£4.72) after I sent a chasing email to MersyRail, paid by Natwests Payit service (I'm a Natwest customer and it tries to link this service to your account) - selecting 'other bank' and just give your sort code and account number for your Natwest account works and doesn't link to whatever else their Payit service does.