Missing CrossCountry service for Delay Repay

[setdown]

Bit of an interesting one whilst trying to claim Delay Repay.

On Saturday 25th October, I wanted to catch the 0715 Southampton Central to Birmingham New Street. I'd checked the departure on my phone at about 6am, and it was showing as running. However, when I got to the station at about 7am, it was shown as cancelled on the departure boards. Checking my phone, it was showing as starting at Winchester, due to a shortage of train drivers.

For filling out my delay repay details, the service does not appear in the suggested journeys. I went to real time trains website, so I could get the details of the journey for manual entry, and I now can't find this service anywhere. I've tried playing with the filters but no luck.

I've managed to find the service from Winchester: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C23377/2025-10-25/detailed#allox_id=0 . It's showing as 'Activated 25/10/2025 06:31', so quite close to departure time really. It's showing as being planned to start from Winchester, but this service was definitely meant to run from Southampton. My phone showed it on the departure boards at 6am, and the boards at Southampton Central were showing it as cancelled when I arrived.

Does anyone know how I can find this journey on some online site? I'm worried that if I can't find it now, then whoever is checking my claim at CrossCountry won't find it either. Thanks!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

This one presumably, prior to the change, whenever that was?

BR Times - Train Times & Station Platform Finder

Alternative journey planner featuring full schedule details including platforms and connection times, for every passenger train on the National Rail network.

www.brtimes.com

Extract...

SAT 25 OCT 2025 XC3087 0635 BOURNEMOUTH to MANCHESTER PICCADILLY - EXPRESS TRAIN

0635 departs BOURNEMOUTH Platform 3

0704 arrives SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL Platform 2

0715 departs SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL Platform 2

 

[setdown]

That's the one! It's a bit weird it seems to have vanished elsewhere- I started to seriously consider that I'd imagined the train!

It's the first time in a long time that I'm claiming from CrossCountry, and my word the system isn't great. Separately, I've claimed for another journey, after them causing a delay on my second leg. They've rejected the claim because my journey is with another operator! Well yes, the first leg is, but you caused the delay on the second bit! I've sent an appeal through with words to that effect. That seems to be such a fundamental failure, that the system can't handle journeys with changes correctly.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It seems they've "P coded" it which nominally makes you ineligible for Delay Repay. Doing it on the day is pretty naughty practice, though; they should have done it as a cancellation of the stops, so you may have some luck with the Ombudsman.

 

[setdown]

So what's the advantage to them of "P Coding" the service on the day, shortly before it leaves? Fiddling the cancellation performance stats?

 

[185]

So what's the advantage to them of "P Coding" the service on the day, shortly before it leaves? Fiddling the cancellation performance stats?

P-Coding is supposed to be up to and no later than a certain time, probably the day before at the very latest.

A Planned Cancellation - is not on the day, it doesn't count as planned and XC probably should be reported for this.

...

Looks like it came straight from Eastleigh Depot, sat at Winchester for three minutes before it entered service and ran as normal to Manchester.

 

[MrJeeves]

The service had a variation of the working timetable (WTT) created through very short-term planning (VSTP).

The "Activated" time is irrelevant to this -- that's when the train gets activated within TRUST rather than when the change was made. TRUST will automatically activate the service 1 hour before it starts. The VSTP could have been issued well before this.

I would imagine that the VSTP change was made pre-10pm, as I understand that Arriva's control team are pretty diligent with this stuff. The fact that the service still shows the cancelled calls in Darwin, the real-time information system, is a good indicator that they aren't trying to hide this change, just using the most effective industry processes to implement it.

It's really likely more of an issue with their delay repay system rather than how the train was cancelled. I would expect a manual claim to be successful in this instance.

 

[Tom]

The activation time of 0631 is unsurprising - a call time of one hour for a class 1 is the usual.

The train in NR land was changed at 2025-10-24 at 20:37:06 UTC, so pre-10pm.

In Darwin land (so passenger facing) it was 2025-10-24 at 20:28:58 BST.

 

[redreni]

If the decision to cancel all the station calls before Winchester was made by 10pm the previous evening, it's not good that when the OP checked the next morning, it was showing as still running from Southampton. Something's not optimised, there.