Service changes affecting your service

[Sealink]

This is a new one for me!

Have booked an Advance ticket from Twickenham to Axminster. (via RailUK Forums tickets)

I received an email with the subject line above, offering me the chance to request a full refund, with the admin fee waived.

The "disruption" is a change to the departure time from Twickenham... of one minute. One minute earlier than on the ticket. It doesn't affect the arrival time at Axminster.

This does seem unduly generous. Is this a new thing? I am sure I have experienced schedule changes before or more than 1 minute and have not been offered the chance of a refund.

 

[Adam Williams]

The spec says:

Retailers must report the following ‘material changes’ in the CIF:

• A train service has been removed from the timetable
• A customer’s origin or destination station has been removed from the stopping pattern
• The train service departure time has been changed (1-minute delta in either direction)

I don't think it's that new, nowadays.

 

[OscarH]

It's not new! This was introduced back in May or June 2022.

They're standard rules across the industry about disruption caused by timetable changes post booking - a change is "material" if the departure time changes by 1 minute or more either way, or the arrival time changes 5 minutes or more either way (or >=1 minute and the minimum connection time is violated at a change)

 

[Adam Williams]

In terms of "generosity", people may well be booking multiple journeys with different retailers (or indeed, different modes of travel) and that 1 minute change could be enough to foul a minimum connection time from another service, or another vehicle.

 

[Watershed]

It has long been the rule as far as I'm aware - it's just that it is now a requirement for retailers to contact customers to proactively offer a refund when that right is engaged.

 

[Sealink]

Thanks for all the replies and explanation.

 

[OscarH]

It has long been the rule as far as I'm aware - it's just that it is now a requirement for retailers to contact customers to proactively offer a refund when that right is engaged.

The first retailers went live with this a long time ago, anyone who did it recently enough be "now" is slacking