XC Rejected Delay Repay - Advice

[muug1982]

Hi, I've had a Delay Repay request rejected by XC and was hoping for some guidance as to whether my claim was legitimate.

Ticket Details:
Coleshill Parkway - Maidenhead Anytime Return (rte Not London) - £99
Outbound Change of Route Excess to Route London - £40

Intended Journey - 11th July
08:05 Coleshill Parkway - Nuneaton arr 08:21
08:46 Nuneaton - Euston arr 09:52
Break of Journey in London
Travel on to Maidenhead in Evening.

Now, when I arrived at Coleshill at approx 07:45, the 07:35 & 08:05 services were both shown as cancelled. However the 07:46 to Birmingham was delayed so I caught that to change at New Street. Arrival at New Street was approx 08:10. I went to the ticket office to complete the excess as the office at Coleshill was closed.

I caught the 08:30 Virgin service to Euston, which was delayed before departure and then ran slow arriving Euston at approx 10:34 (I checked the station clock as soon as I reached the platform.) As the root cause was the cancellation of the XC service I applied to them for Delay Repay which has been rejected as "Our passenger's charter tells us that we can only compensate for trains delayed by more than 30 minutes and your delay doesn't meet this requirement" - I believe the delay was 42 minutes.

I know I didn't travel the full length of the ticket's validity, but surely I would have been delayed if I'd travelled directly to Maidenhead, so this shouldn't impact on the compensation?

I asked XC for £44:50 in compensation.

Is there any reason why my reasoning isn't correct here, and are there any recommendations on how I should proceed.

 

[dave87016]

Im not sure it helped your case when you ask XC for £44:50 in compensation , AFAIK less than a hour delay wont incur much compensation

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The thought occurs that if you broke your journey then it ended later at Maidenhead and they could infact be right that your [overall] journey was not infact delayed by them cancelling trains.

 

[muug1982]

Im not sure it helped your case when you ask XC for £44:50 in compensation , AFAIK less than a hour delay wont incur much compensation

XC response confirms that 30mins is the appropriate time for delay compensation. Delays of 30 mins to an hour are 50% of the outbound journey, in this case:
((99 / 2) + 40) * 50% = £44.75...I provided the calculation due to the complexity of the additional excess.

 

[bnm]

Surely you're overall journey wasn't delayed though. Your destination was Maidenhead and I assume you arrived there at the time you intended.

The only thing I can see that the cancellation of your first intended train caused was that your break of journey in London was shortened by 42 minutes.

Train companies don't give compensation for shortened breaks of journey.

 

[34D]

I don't know the right answer so I won't comment.... HOWEVER what would your Miadstone arrival time have been if you'd gone directly to Maidenhead, and observed all minimum connection times, contrasted with your ACTUAL euston time, again allowing the appropriate time to cross London?

 

[OwlMan]

The 0746 should have arrived at Birmingham at 0758, so arriving at 0810 is only 12 minutes late.
You caught the 0830 from Birmingham which was due at Euston at 0958, as you were only due to arrive at 0952 I can not see how Cross Country delayed you.
Any delay wass caused by Virgin, as the delay was 34 minutes there would be no payment due (Virgin only pay compensation on the Birmingham - London route if the delay is over 45 minutes.
Also your arrival at your final destination was on time no-one actually caused any delay to your overall journey.

Peter

 

[34D]

The 0746 should have arrived at Birmingham at 0758, so arriving at 0810 is only 12 minutes late.
You caught the 0830 from Birmingham which was due at Euston at 0958, as you were only due to arrive at 0952

But the actual arrival time was 10:34, 42 mins later than scheduled.

To the OP: if you'd stuck with 'route not London' and bearing in mind the two cancelled trains, how would your projected and actual Maidenhead arrival times stacked up?

If it is significant, you could have asked to be passed via London (for free) due to the delay, so possibly you could have got your excess back. Sadly I think that your letter has given far too much information away to allow any other tack to work.

 

[bb21]

There is another layer of complication to your case.

Had you caught the 0835 train, this would have got you into Nuneaton at 0851. You can get the 0902 LM service to Rugby, arriving at 0917. The Virgin service at 0923 would get you into Euston at 1014. The 0923 is actually the 0850 from New Street so if that train ran on time, XC could argue that you were not delayed by them. You were delayed that much because you chose to go via Birmingham.

I would just drop the case tbh.

 

[OwlMan]

But the actual arrival time was 10:34, 42 mins later than scheduled......

.

Yes, but that was Virgin's delay not XC, and is less than the 1 hour needed for travel from Nuneaton (or the 45 minutes from Birmingham) to trigger compensation. XC got the OP to Birmingham in time to catch the 0830 (which would make him 6 minutes late at Euston I can see how they are liable for delay repay.

Peter

 

[Mr Spock]

If your original ticket was "route Not London" why were you getting the train from Nuneaton- Euston which I believe is in London?

 

[Mojo]

If your original ticket was "route Not London" why were you getting the train from Nuneaton- Euston which I believe is in London?

If you read the OP, it is stated that an excess was purchased to enable the customer to travel +Via London.

 

[Mr Spock]

If you read the OP, it is stated that an excess was purchased to enable the customer to travel +Via London.

Misread the OP and thought he had to buy the excess at New St to travel on the train from there.

 

[Greenback]

I agree with OwlMan and bb21 that there isn't a good case for any compensation on this occasion, sorry.