Rights following Elizabeth Line delay

[williamn]

My partner is following an itinerary provided by TrainSplit, on an Elizabeth Line train from central London connecting to GWR at Reading. He had a 7 minute connection which following a delay on the Elizabeth Line he will now miss.

What are his rights re ticket acceptance and any delay repay? He will likely be an hour late at his destination.

 

[Haywain]

My partner is following an itinerary provided by TrainSplit, on an Elizabeth Line train from central London connecting to GWR at Reading. He had a 7 minute connection which following a delay on the Elizabeth Line he will now miss.

What are his rights re ticket acceptance and any delay repay? He will likely be an hour late at his destination.

What ticket does he have and where is he going?

 

[williamn]

He’s heading to Bridgend, with a split at Swindon. Just found out he’s got Open tickets so no need to worry about acceptance, so I guess it’s just a question of any delay repay.

 

[redreni]

He’s heading to Bridgend, with a split at Swindon. Just found out he’s got Open tickets so no need to worry about acceptance, so I guess it’s just a question of any delay repay.

What tickets has he got? As in: what is the origin and destination on each ticket? E.g London Underground Zones 1-2 to Swindon and Swindon to Bridgend. Or maybe London Terminals to Swindon? Or Reading to Swindon (using Contactless as far as Reading)?

TfL is liable but the tickets held affect the process of claiming.

 

[williamn]

He’s got:

Anytime day single Paddington to Ealing Broadway
Super Off peak return Ealing Broadway to Swindon
Off peak return Swindon to Bridgend.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Anytime day single Paddington to Ealing Broadway
Super Off peak return Ealing Broadway to Swindon
Off peak return Swindon to Bridgend.

I suppose the split saves money, but not catching the direct train to Wales at Paddington is quite a bit slower.

 

[redreni]

He’s got:

Anytime day single Paddington to Ealing Broadway
Super Off peak return Ealing Broadway to Swindon
Off peak return Swindon to Bridgend.

Look on the TfL website to see if he can claim online. From memory, their online process is set up for Oyster or Contactless users, so if you have any other kind of ticket you need to email them. I'd send the tickets and the itinerary just to reinforce it was all one journey.

Let us know if they try to wriggle out of paying compensation based on the entire journey!

 

[Watershed]

Unfortunately TfL rail services don't participate in the Delay Repay scheme. For journeys that go beyond the London PAYG area, they only pay the minimum delay compensation required under the NRCoT. This means you only get 50% of a single, or 25% of a return, and only if the delay is at least 60 minutes.

It looks like you partner was booked to be on the 18:15 from Paddington (PAD), due into Reading (RDG) at 19:06, and their onward connection was at 19:13 (18:48 ex-PAD) due into Bridgend at 20:59.

Based on the Elizabeth line train having arrived at 19:12¾, the same time the Swansea-bound train left, the connection was obviously missed. The next available service would have been the 20:13 from RDG (19:48 ex-PAD) which actually arrived at Bridgend at 22:02¼.

[The 19:18 ex-PAD runs non-stop to Bristol Parkway (BPW) and there's no opportunity to reach it from RDG using the 19:12 ex-PAD 'relief' train to BPW, as this gets overtaken by the 19:18 at RDG.]

So your partner was indeed more than 60 mins late, hence they are entitled to the above delay compensation. TfL really don't make it easy to claim this, as they say you should either post your ticket to them or call their customer services. There is no online claim form for journeys beyond the PAYG area, unfortunately.

 

[williamn]

Unfortunately TfL rail services don't participate in the Delay Repay scheme. For journeys that go beyond the London PAYG area, they only pay the minimum delay compensation required under the NRCoT. This means you only get 50% of a single, or 25% of a return, and only if the delay is at least 60 minutes.

It looks like you partner was booked to be on the 18:15 from Paddington (PAD), due into Reading (RDG) at 19:06, and their onward connection was at 19:13 (18:48 ex-PAD) due into Bridgend at 20:59.

Based on the Elizabeth line train having arrived at 19:12¾, the same time the Swansea-bound train left, the connection was obviously missed. The next available service would have been the 20:13 from RDG (19:48 ex-PAD) which actually arrived at Bridgend at 22:02¼.

[The 19:18 ex-PAD runs non-stop to Bristol Parkway (BPW) and there's no opportunity to reach it from RDG using the 19:12 ex-PAD 'relief' train to BPW, as this gets overtaken by the 19:18 at RDG.]

So your partner was indeed more than 60 mins late, hence they are entitled to the above delay compensation. TfL really don't make it easy to claim this, as they say you should either post your ticket to them or call their customer services. There is no online claim form for journeys beyond the PAYG area, unfortunately.

Thank you, that’s incredibly helpful!

I feel like ticket sites should have a way of alerting one to the lesser value of TfL compensation as it would probably be a factor in deciding whether to accept a complicated split like this.

 

[Watershed]

Thank you, that’s incredibly helpful!

I feel like ticket sites should have a way of alerting one to the lesser value of TfL compensation as it would probably be a factor in deciding whether to accept a complicated split like this.

Yes - that's a fair point. The same goes for Grand Central and Merseyrail who both have incredibly stingy compensation policies that only just meet (or slightly exceed) the NRCoT minimum.