Post-disruption 11.12.24

[HantsExile]

I'd appreciate any advice people could give me following my experience of disruption on Wed 11th December.

I travelled from Winchester to London Waterloo on a Super Off Peak Return (with Senior RailCard). The outward journey was uneventful.

I arrived at Waterloo at around 21.15 to catch the 21.35 Waterloo to Winchester - and found chaos. Multiple delays and cancellations due to lines being blocked by an incident at, I think, Weybridge.

Eventually at around 22.30 it was announced that there would be no trains on the Winchester line until the end of service. The official advice was to catch a train to Guildford and a taxi from there which SWR would refund. As it was getting late (for this lady customer of mature years!) I didn't fancy this, so I phoned a friend in SE London who could put me up for the night. Again because of the lateness of the hour, I took a taxi to her house, cost around £50.

On Thursday morning I bought a Crystal Palace to Winchester Single with RailCard.

On arrival at Winchester I was told that I had been sold the wrong ticket - it was a Super Off Peak ticket (I hadn't noticed) but I was "let off".

What I have done since:

• Successfully applied for Delay Repay of 120 mins plus - a speedy and positive resolution
• Applied for but not heard back about refund of taxi fare (I'm prepared for the fact that I may not get this as SWR were only talking about refund of station to station taxis)

My questions:

• Should I have tried to travel on Thursday morning with the unused return portion of my Wednesday ticket? If so, would I have needed to get it endorsed on Wednesday night?
• Do I have any grounds for applying for a refund of the Crystal Palace to Winchester ticket?

All advice gratefully received!

 

[I_am_Nobody]

Should I have tried to travel on Thursday morning with the unused return portion of my Wednesday ticket? If so, would I have needed to get it endorsed on Wednesday night?

I believe I saw SWR messaging saying that 11th Dec tickets were valid for travel on the 12th, due to the level of disruption on the network the day before, so this would have been possible. Not sure how widespread said messaging was though, or how well it was mentioned at stations and such. It was also only for SWR services, so unlikely to have worked to get from Crystal Palace to nearest SWR services.

Will allow others to discuss the other points, as they will be better placed to assist! Good luck trying to get your refunds and such, I hope you get them.

 

[30907]

As the Super Offpeak Return is valid one month, you could have used any train from Clapham Jn after 1200 yesterday. To travel before that you would be relying on SW having lifted restrictions, which they had, or would have had to pay the difference to the Offpeak fare which is not huge.

As for claiming refunds, it is slightly complicated by your DR claim (100% of the original ticket) and the fact that you have used the CYP-WIN ticket, which you bought unnecessarily (you obviously needed CYP-CLJ).

A polite email to customer relations, clearing setting out what you did (mentioning the DR) and asking for a goodwill gesture, would be worth it - certainly if they decline your taxi fare.

 

[Haywain]

Any refund of the Crystal Palace to Winchester ticket should be requested from the retailer who sold that ticket.

 

[Watershed]

Although you clearly reduced SWR's liability here by opting to stay with a friend rather than getting a taxi, it puts you in a slightly difficult position in terms of getting Delay Repay, or reimbursement for the additional ticket you bought.

I would suggest contacting their customer services, explaining the circumstances and asking them to compensate accordingly. Let us know what they come back with.

 

[30907]

Any refund of the Crystal Palace to Winchester ticket should be requested from the retailer who sold that ticket.

The difficulty being that the ticket has been used

 

[HantsExile]

Thank you everyone for the information and advice. I shall be clearer what to do if it happens again!

The latest situation is:

• I've been notified that I will receive a full (whole ticket) refund of my WIN-WAT return fare.
• I've been notified that I will receive a full refund of my taxi fare from WAT to my friend's house in SE London.

This is very good news!

As regards the ticket erroneously bought from Crystal Palace to Winchester, I think I'm going to put that down to experience. I think trying to get a refund on this one will be too difficult as I will have to engage with Southern and the problem is not really theirs.

Three final points from me:

• I meant to mention that the staff at Waterloo on Wednesday night were generally excellent in the midst of a lot of stress and uncertainty.
• According to RTT service was restored on Wednesday night, and the 23.05 train (calling at Winchester) did run. However it was delayed and didn't arrive in Winchester until after 01.00 - so I'm glad I didn't take that option! And if I had, the delay would still have been over 120 minutes so still entitling me to a full refund.
• SWT's Delay Repay service is, in my experience very good. On this occasion, I had acknowledgements of my two claims pretty immediately and notification that the claims were successful within 36 hours.

Thanks again to everyone for input.