Northern rejected cancelled train claim

[Mal75756]

A few moments ago i have just received a response from Northern for the train cancellation i experienced and it does seem unfair that Northern are allowed to do this.

I purchased a ticket on the 20th December at around midday on trainline to travel on the 06:58 Goole to Doncaster the next day. Around 23:00 on the 20th i received an email saying the train had been cancelled, i didn't read the email until i awoke at 05:30 on the day of travel so didn't know about it until i was about to step out of the door and checked the status of the train.

Northern's explanation is, as the schedules are prepared by 22:00 the day before, then the train was no longer scheduled and no delay repay can be made. How is it possible for people to plan their travel with any kind of assurance if the train companies are allowed to make such late changes. I have also noticed that the 06:58 was back in the schedule the next day and has been since apart from one day when it was again out of the schedule.

 

[Watershed]

I presume you did travel, but were delayed? Otherwise, if you didn't travel, you should be claiming a full refund from your retailer (in this case, The Trainline).

Northern are trying to rely on the purported "Published Timetable of the Day" exclusion from Delay Repay. This is whereby they claim that, as late as 10pm the night before, they can randomly cancel whichever trains they don't have the traincrew to run - and these then magically cease to be part of the timetable.

Unilaterally varying the contract without notice or compensation is, of course, a complete non-starter from a consumer and contract law perspective - but that doesn't stop Northern from rejecting your claim and making it difficult to get what you're entitled to. They know that, due to the relatively small sums in question, very few people will appeal or take their claim further, and only a handful will take them to Court (which will, in many cases, be the only way to get the compensation you're owed).

This shameful practice will only disappear when there's sufficient political pressure to force the Department for Transport to backtrack and remove the purported exclusion from the Conditions of Travel and the Passenger's Charters. So you might want to consider contacting your MP to ask them to have Northern, or the DfT, justify this.

 

[Mal75756]

Thank you for your reply and you are right, the journey is only valued at £8.90 and a thirty minute delay (the time of the next train which i had to take) will give only a portion of that and therefore people will not do anything other than moan but ultimately they get away with shoddy practices.

I suppose my surprise was that the train has run on other days and yet can claim a change of timetable to justify it.

Maybe Northern shoutd take a leaf from TPE as I was due to catch the 9.42 from Doncaster to Stockport which was cancelled, the excuse given by TPE was a short notice change to the timetable but they settled their delay repay within two days. Although my alternative journey was changed so i had to go Doncaster to Sheffield by Northern and then Sheffield to Stockport by East Midlands. For my journeys i always split ticket Goole to Doncaster and then Doncaster to Stockport as this saves me half of the full fare if i was to use one ticket.

Once again, thanks for the reply and information