Delay repay conundrum

So, Diss to Cardiff today. Had seats booked out of Paddington but it's a flexible ticket and I decided to travel earlier so I can get to bed at a sensible time.
Arrived at Diss to hear an announcement that there had been a fatality (that was the wording used) further down the line and that if intending to reach anywhere beyond Colchester, not to travel.
Station staff confirmed 'do not travel'. Asked if I could go via Cambridge, told yes. So I got on the train (1p45) intending to change at Stowmarket, but it wasn't booked to stop and we arrived Ipswich just as the Cambridge train pulled out. I prevaricated as the train sat there but decided to go for a 'known delay' and wait for the Peterborough train to Ely. Official advice at this time was still do not travel.
Next London train came in and was announced it would be 'held until further notice'. They dispatched it 10 minutes or so later which made me question my decision, but I checked the information and the advice was still 'line closed, don't travel'.
The 1717 from Ely to Kings X was cancelled, I wen to Cambridge and got a Thameslink to St Pancras.
So I got to Paddington just in time for the 1915 Swansea.
In the event, to original train i caught from Diss arrived at Liverpool Street only 52 minutes late just after 5pm as the line reopened shortly after I settled into a 156...

How are GA likely to treat a delay repay claim? The NR journey planner says the 1447 from Diss should get me to Cardiff for 1925. I probably would have missed that connection and ended up on the following service arriving 2020 had I gone against the travel advice and stayed on the train so due 25% of my return fare. But I'm actually going to arrive at 2117, so 50% refund should be due.
Specific questions:
1. Does my booking on an even later service count against me? They could argue I've not been delayed at all from my original itinerary.
2. Does the fact that had I stayed on the train I caught from Diss count against me, even though their advice was not to travel at all?

I'm not annoyed or anything, it was my choice to follow the advice (and thereby suffer a "known" delay rather than risk being stuck for hours somewhere. And the tragic incident is nobodies fault. And obviously I'm not detracting from the fact that lots of people will have had a far worse day than me. I'm curious how they will see it, or how they should apply the rules in this case.
I will be donating any refund to charity, as the ticket is on expenses anyway.

If you acted in accordance with instructions to take a different route, then it's legitimate to claim for the delay you actually incurred, rather than the delay you would have occurred if you had remained on board the train.

If you chose to take a slower route when not advised to do so, then the position becomes far from clear, and it would be difficult to argue it would be a legitimate claim.

To compound matters if you chose to depart earlier than planned specifically because you heard of the disruption and wanted to minimise delay, and you therefore arrived on time or early, then it is also very unclear; many people argue that Delay Repay does not cover this, though there is an argument to say that it should. We will never get consensus on this; partly because there is no universal acceptance of the definition of the term "delay" in this context. See https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-extend-journey-to-avoid-cancellation.187566/ for some arguments for and against.

It sounds like it could cause both yourself and the company a fair bit of time to try to work this one out; the value of which may actually be greater than the value of the difference between the amounts that might be due.

For future reference, it can make it easier for us to give advice if you provide, in tabulated format that is concise and easy to read, details of your planned/intended itinerary vs your actual itinerary. It can be difficult to follow otherwise.

Yes, I should have waited till I was in front of a computer rather than tapping it out on a phone.
My decision to travel early was nothing to do with the disruption, I only found out about that once I got to the station.
I'll submit it and see what happens. No big deal really. And far better than the days of BR where I believe you got nowt!

To update, they've paid this as a 15+ minute delay. I assume they think I caught the 1745 from Paddington after missing the planned 1715.
Even if I'd stayed on my original service from Diss, I'd have arrived at Liverpool Street nearly an hour late and with way less than the minimum connection time of 1 hour to make that service. The earliest I could have made would have been the 1814 which would have made me a shade under an hour late and therefore a 30+ payment.
My circuitous diversion (on their staffs advice) made me nearly 2 hours late to Cardiff but I would see a justification for a 30 minute payment.
I can't see how they can justify classing it as a 15 minute delay.
Needless to say I shall appeal.

trebor79 said:

To update, they've paid this as a 15+ minute delay. I assume they think I caught the 1745 from Paddington after missing the planned 1715.
Even if I'd stayed on my original service from Diss, I'd have arrived at Liverpool Street nearly an hour late and with way less than the minimum connection time of 1 hour to make that service. The earliest I could have made would have been the 1814 which would have made me a shade under an hour late and therefore a 30+ payment.
My circuitous diversion (on their staffs advice) made me nearly 2 hours late to Cardiff but I would see a justification for a 30 minute payment.
I can't see how they can justify classing it as a 15 minute delay.
Needless to say I shall appeal.

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Seems GA just didn't calculate your delay and throw you the minimum delay repay.

For the original service you intended to take, the earliest service you could have taken would be 1814 service from Paddington (not 1745 one, as you got only 33 minutes for connection, which is not enough at all), which arrived Swansea at 2118 (55 minutes delay).

To be clear, with a flexible ticket you are not obliged to travel on the train that you have seat reservations for - you can travel on an earlier train, or a later train, as you wish. When you submit a delay repay claim, you are not required to justify why you decided to travel on an earlier train to that you originally booked for. If you caught an earlier train, for whatever reason, then use a journey planner to work out the itinerary departing at this earlier time - this should be the journey that you show on the delay repay claim.

GA have confirmed the calculation they did was incorrect and have increased the compensation to a 30-60 minute delay. So it appears they are now treating it as though I stayed on the train from Diss to Liverpool Street, and ignoring the much longer delay as a result of travelling via Ely.
I guess that's fair enough in a way, as it was my choice to do that rather than risk an unknown delay of who knew how long.

trebor79 said:

GA have confirmed the calculation they did was incorrect and have increased the compensation to a 30-60 minute delay. So it appears they are now treating it as though I stayed on the train from Diss to Liverpool Street, and ignoring the much longer delay as a result of travelling via Ely.
I guess that's fair enough in a way, as it was my choice to do that rather than risk an unknown delay of who knew how long.

Click to expand...

I agree with that.

It would be very different if you were advised to go that way, of course.