Should train air conditioning failures result in passenger compensation?

[Iskra]

This is something I have experienced in Italy on a sleeper train, where I got a 25% refund after air con failure, which was as fun as you can imagine.

It seems quite a few trains over here in the UK are suffering from this- should passengers who have to suffer sweltering carriages in heatwave conditions be entitled to compensation?

I see this both as a benefit to passengers who have endured poor travelling conditions, but also it would provide a financial incentive for TOC’s to take air conditioning/cooling serviceability more seriously.

 

[speedy1]

Maybe.

I'm worried how the railway would respond. Roasting people alive and only a few people claiming and actually getting their 25%? Could be a good trade off for the government/TOCs

Has delay repay resulted in fewer delays and cancellations? Would compensation for aircon failures result in fewer malfunctions? I can't see it. I think delay repay normalised delays and cancellations to an extent

(I'd also advocate for 200% compensation when all toilets are out of order and you're told just as the train departs )

 

[Dr Hoo]

Back in the mid-1970s, when air conditioning on trains was quite novel, I was working in a BR admin office that also dealt with passenger complaints.
During a very hot spell (might have been 1976) there were a lot of failures and ‘nightmare journeys’. Many of these were from travellers who didn’t normally use trains but thought that they would give it a try because few cars had A/C back then.
A surge of letters arrived and everyone was roped in to prepare broadly standard replies. (No word processing or mail merge back then!) it was quickly decided to offer ~30% ‘ex gratia’ payments in relation to the fare paid via cheque. Every letter individually typed.

 

[To the trains]

Maybe.

I'm worried how the railway would respond. Roasting people alive and only a few people claiming and actually getting their 25%? Could be a good trade off for the government/TOCs

Has delay repay resulted in fewer delays and cancellations? Would compensation for aircon failures result in fewer malfunctions? I can't see it. I think delay repay normalised delays and cancellations to an extent

(I'd also advocate for 200% compensation when all toilets are out of order and you're told just as the train departs )

Well even if it doesn't reduce failures, I'd rather get a quarter of the fare back when I have to travel in an oven on rails than not. Better than a poke in the eye. Train manufacturers since about the turn of the millennium have had far too much trust in the reliability of their air-conditioning and should really always have kept a few windows that can be unlocked and tipped inwards when the air-conditioning fails. Not perfect but better than nothing when your metal and glass sausage under the beaming Sun can't cool itself down.