SWR Delay Repay advice

[Railcar]

Have any forum members managed to claim Delay Repay from SWR? How did you manage to send a pic of the ticket (which has no price printed) and a pic of the receipt, when only one pic may be uploaded?

Also, if your journey had problems which caused multiple delays, how did you explain this? There seems to be no opportunity to insert an explanation.

 

[1955LR]

Regarding one picture , I take one picture encompassing all the tickets and any other required submssion as one upload

 

[Haywain]

Also, if your journey had problems which caused multiple delays, how did you explain this? There seems to be no oportunity to insert an explanation.

The only delay that is relevant is the time you arrived at your destination, compared to the scheduled arrival time.

 

[Railcar]

The only delay that is relevant is the time you arrived at your destination, compared to the scheduled arrival time.

My delay was caused by two trains, one from Exeter St Davids to Waterloo, which terminated (late) at Salisbury, and another train from Salisbury that got me to my destination (Clapham Junction). By then, I was two hours late. The Delay Repay system does not allow this to be explained.

 

[AlterEgo]

My delay was caused by two trains, one from Exeter St Davids to Waterloo, which terminated (late) at Salisbury, and another train from Salisbury that got me to my destination (Clapham Junction). By then, I was two hours late. The Delay Repay system does not allow this to be explained.

It doesn't need to be. Only the first train is relevant for the claim.

 

[Haywain]

My delay was caused by two trains, one from Exeter St Davids to Waterloo, which terminated (late) at Salisbury, and another train from Salisbury that got me to my destination (Clapham Junction). By then, I was two hours late. The Delay Repay system does not allow this to be explained.

You don't have to explain - you simply enter details of your planned itinerary and the delay that you suffered at your final destination, which was Waterloo. So, if you departed Exeter at 1330 on a train scheduled to arrive at Waterloo at 1751, that's what you enter on the form. If you arrived at Waterloo at 2010, you claim for a delay of over 2 hours (or 120 minutes).

 

[30907]

On the paper form it requires scheduled departure and arrival and actual arrival (in your case at CLJ). I presume the online form asks the same?

 

[Haywain]

How did you manage to send a pic of the ticket

An eTicket will have a price traceable from the barcode - you don't need it to be on the picture.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Oct 2025 ==

On the paper form it requires scheduled departure and arrival and actual arrival (in your case at CLJ). I presume the online form asks the same?

Even easier - it asks for your journey and then asks you to select the train.

 

[ThisIsSurbiton]

On the paper form it requires scheduled departure and arrival and actual arrival (in your case at CLJ). I presume the online form asks the same?

It doesn't... You search for the journey you should have made, or enter it manually, and then select one of a number of delays - something like 15-29, 30-59, 60-119 minutes and over two hours

 

[Belperpete]

Have any forum members managed to claim Delay Repay from SWR? How did you manage to send a pic of the ticket (which has no price printed) and a pic of the receipt, when only one pic may be uploaded?
Also, if your journey had problems which caused multiple delays, how did you explain this? There seems to be no oportunity to insert an explanation.

You are over thinking this. As others have said, just provide the information that they ask for! Their system will see from their records that your train got cancelled en route. It will also see the next train that was available to you, and how that ran. There is no need for you to explain it all.

In fact, their system will even ignore some of the information that you provide! If their system comes up with a different delay to what you claimed, for example, they will usually pay what they think it was, even where it is greater than what you claimed. Likewise they will ignore how much you say you paid for your ticket if their records say different.

Having said that, problems can occasionally occur when their system gets it wrong. In which case, at some stage during the appeal process you should be given the opportunity to explain. But you are just wasting your time trying to explain it upfront when in most cases no explanation is needed or wanted.

 

[Dougal2345]

If their system comes up with a different delay to what you claimed, for example, they will usually pay what they think it was, even where it is greater than what you claimed.

Or if it is less than you claimed

This has just happened to me - on Saturday I travelled from Sway to Weymouth.

My journey should have been (following the Journey Planner):

Sway (09:26) -> New Milton (09:31)
New Milton (09:45) -> Weymouth (11:05)

What happened was:

Sway (09:32) -> New Milton (09:37)
New Milton (10:22) -> Dorchester South (11:33) (cancelled to Weymouth)
Dorchester South (12:46) -> Weymouth (12:54)

So a full 1:39 delay. (problems at Poole level crossing I understand)

(to be fair, I could have walked to Dorchester West and gone from there (12:12) -> Weymouth (12:24) - but still well over an hour late)

So I put in my claim for 60 minute+ delay. But SWR came back with a 30-59 minute delay. Why?

Well, it transpires that, if I had ignored the journey planner and travelled to Bournemouth to change, I could have picked up a delayed Bournemouth-Weymouth train there and arrived at Weymouth earlier.

Sway (09:32) -> Bournemouth (09:57)
Bournemouth (10:36) -> Weymouth (11:35).

Now, I wonder if I have a case to appeal there... (it's only an extra £4 or so, but annoying!)

Just to round things off, getting to Weymouth to catch the 16:00 service back, found everything delayed due to a signal failure around Moreton. Got home an hour late - also claimed for that, haven't heard back yet though...

 

[Belperpete]

Or if it is less than you claimed

This has just happened to me - on Saturday I travelled from Sway to Weymouth.

Well, it transpires that, if I had ignored the journey planner and travelled to Bournemouth to change, I could have picked up a delayed Bournemouth-Weymouth train there and arrived at Weymouth earlier.

Sway (09:32) -> Bournemouth (09:57)
Bournemouth (10:36) -> Weymouth (11:35).

Now, I wonder if I have a case to appeal there... (it's only an extra £4 or so, but annoying!)

You absolutely have a case to appeal. If the journey planner tells you to change at New Milton, that is what most passengers will do.

 

[Dougal2345]

I put in an appeal, no response yet...

Just to round things off, getting to Weymouth to catch the 16:00 service back, found everything delayed due to a signal failure around Moreton. Got home an hour late - also claimed for that, haven't heard back yet though...

Just got a response to this one - they've tried the same trick again! They have determined my 1-hour delay was 30-59 minutes.

I followed the Journey Planner advice for the Weymouth-Sway trip, changing at Bournemouth, and as the Weymouth-Bournemouth portion ran late, I caught the next hourly service to Sway and arrived precisely 1 hour late.

If instead I had continued to Brockenhurst, then 'doubled back' to Sway, I could have brought that delay down to 58 minutes, which I suppose is what SWR think I should have done.

(I did consider it at the time, but decided the Bournemouth change was the better bet - also I'm never quite sure if the Brockenhurst double-back option is legal - at times the Journey Planner seems to offer it at no extra cost, at others it doesn't).

So that's now appealed too. It seems that in times of disruption SWR expect you to be almost psychic in choosing your interchange points...

 

[James H]

I am currently having a similar case with SWR where they have taken what on the face of it is a valid claim for 60 minutes' delay and adjudicated that it falls in the 30-59 bracket.

 

[redreni]

I put in an appeal, no response yet...



Just got a response to this one - they've tried the same trick again! They have determined my 1-hour delay was 30-59 minutes.

[...]

If instead I had continued to Brockenhurst, then 'doubled back' to Sway, I could have brought that delay down to 58 minutes, which I suppose is what SWR think I should have done.

(I did consider it at the time, but decided the Bournemouth change was the better bet - also I'm never quite sure if the Brockenhurst double-back option is legal - at times the Journey Planner seems to offer it at no extra cost, at others it doesn't).

So that's now appealed too. It seems that in times of disruption SWR expect you to be almost psychic in choosing your interchange points...

Have they shared their reasoning with you?

You say your delay was exactly one hour: is that according to your timings, or the industry data, or both?

When you're close to a delay threshold it can be worth filming your arrival, as sometimes the arrival time that gets recorded is calculated from the last point where the train's location can be determined and timed (e.g. a track circuit just outside the station) and an assumption is made about how long it would have taken to come to a halt at the platform after that. So it might differ from reality.

If the industry data agrees your train was one hour late but they're working on the assumption that you did, or should have, taken a different train that arrived earlier, I expect this will be paid if you explain and dig in your heels a bit.

But if the industry data says your train was only 59.75 minutes late and you have no evidence to the contrary, then you might have to accept the payout for 30-59 minutes.

 

[Dougal2345]

Have they shared their reasoning with you?

You say your delay was exactly one hour: is that according to your timings, or the industry data, or both?

When you're close to a delay threshold it can be worth filming your arrival, as sometimes the arrival time that gets recorded is calculated from the last point where the train's location can be determined and timed (e.g. a track circuit just outside the station) and an assumption is made about how long it would have taken to come to a halt at the platform after that. So it might differ from reality.

If the industry data agrees your train was one hour late but they're working on the assumption that you did, or should have, taken a different train that arrived earlier, I expect this will be paid if you explain and dig in your heels a bit.

But if the industry data says your train was only 59.75 minutes late and you have no evidence to the contrary, then you might have to accept the payout for 30-59 minutes.

My appeal for that one has been rejected to-day.

I don't think the reasoning for SWR Delay Repay claims or appeals is ever shared, is it? Not for claims submitted through the Delay Repay portal anyway.

On the appeal I wrote (apologies for terse syntax but there was a character limit):

Delay duration: Between 60 - 119 Minutes
Appeal reason: I dispute the journey plan you calculated
Additional appeal details: Hi, I followed the journey planner advice for WEY-SWY, which is to change at BMH. So there was no way to reach SWY without a full 1 hour delay. It could have been a 58 min delay if I had ignored the planner and changed at BCU, but I didn't...

And the response was:

Thank you for submitting your claim appeal. We have reviewed the information available to us and have upheld the original decision made, so no further compensation is due above the originally awarded £4.38.

So I've no idea what they are thinking. Unfortunately 25th October has now disappeared from Realtime Trains so I can't check the precise arrival time - so maybe it is the '15 seconds less than an hour' reason you mention.

(although that seems like a 'letter of the law not spirit of the law' approach - if a service is hourly, and you are forced to travel on the train after the one you had planned, that's an hour delay, not a 59 minutes 45 seconds delay...)

Still, they then say "If you still believe we've made the wrong decision, or that you've given us the wrong information, please get in touch with our Complaints Handling team via https://www.southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/contact-us-form with the relevant details before Tue, 09 Dec 2025" - so perhaps I'll get more sense from them if I do that...

[added 12-Nov - for my outward journey, Sway-Weymouth, detailed in post #11 in this thread, my appeal has succeeded]