Northern Rail Delay Repay 15

[Towielad]

looks like an expensive time ahead for Northern!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45482773

Northern rail passengers will be able to claim compensation if their train is 15 minutes late, rail minister Jo Johnson has announced.

Under the current Delay Repay scheme passengers can make a claim if their train is at least 30 minutes late.

Mr Johnson said: "Passengers deserve a reliable train service, and when things do go wrong it is vital that they are compensated fairly.

 

[Clip]

Well rather than expensive you would hope it spurs them on to improve the services somewhat.

 

[northwichcat]

No effective date mentioned and the delay repay form it links to still only allows claims for delays of over 30 minutes.

 

[scrapy]

looks like an expensive time ahead for Northern!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45482773

Will this be funded by the taxpayer or out of Northerns profits?

 

[Bantamzen]

Will this be funded by the taxpayer or out of Northerns profits?

If it came off profits, and profits fell enough then sooner or later it would be picked up by the taxpayer either in the form of additional subsidies, or if Arriva did a VTEC & the government having to take on the franchise as a publically run entity.

 

[northwichcat]

Will this be funded by the taxpayer or out of Northerns profits?

Passengers on Northern will be eligible for enhanced compensation for train delays from this December (2018), rail minister Jo Johnson announced today (13 September 2018).

Attending the Transport for the North board in Sheffield, Mr Johnson unveiled plans by the operator to extend the existing ‘Delay Repay’ compensation scheme to include delays of 15 minutes - known as DR15 — and longer.

Currently, passengers can claim compensation if their train is at least 30 minutes late. But from the end of this year, the extended scheme will allow claims for delays of half that, meaning passengers delayed by between 15 and 29 minutes will be able to claim back compensation worth 25% of the single fare.

Department for Transport and Transport for the North, together under the rail north partnership, are working with Northern to finalise commercial terms before implementation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...rthern-passengers-as-delay-replay-is-extended

TfN are meeting today, both the full committee and the Rail North committee and the press and public are excluded from some of the Rail North items so presumably that's being discussed then. Jo Johnson is an invitee so presumably he wanted to put out a press release to draw attention to the fact he was doing something with TfN today, even though the details aren't finalised yet.

 

[Towielad]

No effective date mentioned and the delay repay form it links to still only allows claims for delays of over 30 minutes.

Says December in news article so guessing around the time of time changes elsewhere in UK

 

[northwichcat]

If it came off profits, and profits fell enough then sooner or later it would be picked up by the taxpayer either in the form of additional subsidies, or if Arriva did a VTEC & the government having to take on the franchise as a publically run entity.

Indeed. The real question is whether the 15 minute clause will help rebuild patronage lost following the timetable change fiasco and the industrial action.

 

[Bantamzen]

Indeed. The real question is whether the 15 minute clause will help rebuild patronage lost following the timetable change fiasco and the industrial action.

Its possible for sure, I just hope whoever Northern currently outsource the work to get on with a recruitment drive as they are going to need a lot more staff!

 

[Clip]

No effective date mentioned and the delay repay form it links to still only allows claims for delays of over 30 minutes.

From the next paragraph down

The changes, which come into effect in December,

 

[northwichcat]

To add more confusion to the Northern compensation system Andy Burnham has tweeted from the TfN meeting in Sheffield

I’ve called for compensation for all frequent rail users due to recent chaos, not just season ticket holders. This was agreed, more soon

https://twitter.com/AndyBurnhamGM/status/1040231660053311488

 

[sheff1]

I just hope whoever Northern currently outsource the work to get on with a recruitment drive as they are going to need a lot more staff!

The rail company said "approved claims should be paid within 10 days." Note, no mention of how long it will take to approve the claim !

 

[bb21]

It is still subject to the timescale of the overall service level commitment, normally 20 working days but simple Delay Repay matters should not take anywhere near that long.

 

[Clip]

It is still subject to the timescale of the overall service level commitment, normally 20 working days but simple Delay Repay matters should not take anywhere near that long.

They havent been too bad when ive claimed for cancelled trains - think its about 15 days but they have said they have a large workload so as long as i can see my claim in my account is being classed as 'Open' then im satisfried to know that it will soon show closed

 

[Silverdale]

Well rather than expensive you would hope it spurs them on to improve the services somewhat.

Is there any evidence that delays have reduced since TOCs were obliged to operate delay repay?

Or do those bidding for franchises simply accept the current level of delay as a consequence of running the franchise and price the costs of delay repay into their bid as another fixed overhead?

 

[Clip]

Is there any evidence that delays have reduced since TOCs were obliged to operate delay repay?

I couldnt possibly say however seeing as Northerns whole service went down the pan a few months back and the costs of that to them then you would like to think that reducing delays on their network would be a good thing - contrary to what you may think.

Or do those bidding for franchises simply accept the current level of delay as a consequence of running the franchise and price the costs of delay repay into their bid as another fixed overhead?

I would assume they do however by reducing delays that fixed overhead turns into profit for the TOC so is an incentive for them to do so - which I would've thought apparent along with the fact that negative press has had an adverse effect on Northern and Thameslink so much so that people have chosen other modes of transport to get them to and from work and some apparently have changed jobs entirely so they dont have to rely on services so thats lost revenue to the TOC especially in the case of surrendered season tickets which they all love because its money upfront.;

So you see theres a lot more to it than just 'TOCs dont do anything' to mitigate delay repay because theres many reasons why doing so is an incentive to them.

 

[sheff1]

It is still subject to the timescale of the overall service level commitment, normally 20 working days but simple Delay Repay matters should not take anywhere near that long.

Only once in the last year has my Northern Delay Repay claim been approved within 20 working days, so the notion that they should not take anywhere near that long is rather amusing.

 

[sheff1]

Is there any evidence that delays have reduced since TOCs were obliged to operate delay repay?

All I can say is that the number of delays/cancellations I have personally experienced on Northern (under various guises) was far less, as a % of journeys undertaken, prior to the introduction of Delay Repay.

 

[bb21]

Only once in the last year has my Northern Delay Repay claim been approved within 20 working days, so the notion that they should not take anywhere near that long is rather amusing.

I said "should", not "would". Individual experiences, while unfortunate, are not something I can draw conclusions from.

All TOCs are measured on their response times. There are penalties associated with missing agreed targets, eg. proportion of complaints responded to/resolved within a given timescale. I wouldn't know whether you were particularly unlucky, or whether Northern were consistently missing their targets hence incurring relevant penalties.

It may be that the penalties were not severe enough if the latter, but I really wouldn't know the specific case with Northern. There could be a whole host of possibilities.

 

[BigCj34]

If I was making a journey, let's say with Virgin and then connected onto a Northern train, which subsequently arrives 15 minutes late, are they liable to pay 25% of the single fare even though I mostly used another TOC?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

If I was making a journey, let's say with Virgin and then connected onto a Northern train, which subsequently arrives 15 minutes late, are they liable to pay 25% of the single fare even though I mostly used another TOC?

It depends who first caused your journey to become delayed.

If, for example, you had planned your journey with a 40 minute connection at somewhere like Preston, then if your first VTWC service was delayed by 30 minutes it hasn't actually caused any delay to your journey. If your connecting Northern service is then also delayed by 30 minutes (or 15 minutes from December), then despite the fact that your earlier VTWC was delayed, you would claim from Northern since they first caused your journey to be delayed.

It's a complex system and it's very easy for claims to be incorrectly rejected or accepted. But usually pursuing it a few times will see you paid the correct compensation.