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Why do Chiltern and Grand Central get away with not offering Delay Repay?

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trenopendo

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I was seeing that Grand Central only offers compensation for delays over 1 hour, and they don't cover any event if it was "outside rail industry control". The same is true for Chiltern, but they offer compensation starting from 30 minutes.

Why can't the government make all companies follow a more pro-consumer Delay Repay Scheme?
 
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yorkie

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I was seeing that Grand Central only offers compensation for delays over 1 hour, and they don't cover any event if it was "outside rail industry control". The same is true for Chiltern, but they offer compensation starting from 30 minutes.

Why can't the government make all companies follow a more pro-consumer Delay Repay Scheme?
The DfT have no say in what Grand Central do as it's not a franchised operator.

As for Chiltern, I expect they will offer Delay Repay the next time the franchise is renewed, as has happened with other franchises.
 

Starmill

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Merseyrail don't offer 'Delay Repay' either, but do have a charter scheme that will give some reasonable compensation if it's for a journey only on their own services.

Tfl Rail and London Overground don't offer Delay Repay, but they will offer a 'service delay refund' which provides all of your money back from your fare if certain conditions are met. This is potentially superior to 'Delay Repay' because it's easier to use with Pay As You Go.

As I understand it, GWR don't yet offer 'Delay Repay' to Season ticket holders of longer than 7 days, because they're still on a discount scheme.

Hull Trains do not offer Delay Repay but they do offer a generous charter compensation scheme, far more generous than Grand Central's.

All of the other companies to which the National Rail Conditions of Travel apply do I think offer Delay Repay.

Delay Repay and Charter compensation rules are an entitlement over and above the National Rail Conditions of Travel, which sets out the minimum that all companies must offer.

At the point at which it is re-franchised, whenever that is, I am sure that Chiltern will move over to a Delay Repay scheme as @yorkie says. All of the new appointments have moved companies over to one that provides compensation for delays of at least 15 minutes. There is still a lot of inconsistency though. There is also inconsistency around the rate for season ticket holders under Delay Repay, although this has been slightly ironed out more recently.
 
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Energy

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Chiltern have had a super long franchise, their current one is from 2002 so that explains why, it simply wasn't thought of at the time.
 

VT 390

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Is there a reason why Delay Repay can not be added during a long franchise, like Chiltern, or is it that the company just chooses not to?
 

Bletchleyite

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Is there a reason why Delay Repay can not be added during a long franchise, like Chiltern, or is it that the company just chooses not to?

It would be possible to open negotiations on it, but I'd imagine Chiltern would want paying for it. All other introductions have been after the signing of a new franchise or management contract.

Regarding GC, they are a private company and can (within reason) do what they like. The only way to force them into it would be to make it a condition of membership of the national fares system (though presumably they could if they wished opt out of that and only sell dedicated tickets?)
 

Energy

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Is there a reason why Delay Repay can not be added during a long franchise, like Chiltern, or is it that the company just chooses not to?
Depends on the contract, some may have a review every few years written into the franchise.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Is there a reason why Delay Repay can not be added during a long franchise, like Chiltern, or is it that the company just chooses not to?

The DfT doesn't like renegotiating franchise contracts.
It's all very well imposing punitive new rules on TOCs, but there will also be claims the other way (late infrastructure etc) which DfT won't want to concede.
A new franchise or direct award means a completely new contract, so it will be part of the new baseline.
But it looks as though we are set for another major revision of contracts with the Williams review.
Chiltern is up for renewal next year (2021) so it might be a very different contract regime by then.
 
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