Yes, and I've had 2hr delay repay refunds before too. But they aren't abandonments.
What that does highlight is another edge case though - continuing via alternative transport at your own cost to avoid a severe delay, which removes the entitlement to Delay Repay for that delay. In the days of paper tickets people might claim anyway and put the money into the taxi fare, but with e-tickets providing far better evidence of what actually happened this is seriously unadvisable now.
The new automated systems will not know that you made personal alternative arrangements and there is no way to tell the ticket retailer that you did so (ie no free text box). The fact that you did not scan out at the end of your journey is no evidence that you did not make the entire journey (the converse is true), the barriers could have been open, you could have made the last leg/s of your trip without being gripped.
The system/s
seem to calculate the delay it thinks you suffered and offers compensation based on that. I
assume it does this by taking your start time and running through the journey using 'on the day' times and according to Journey Planner rules (eg for minimum connection times) until you reach your destination at time x with a delay of y. If you are underpaid Delay Repay as a result I guess you may appeal, depending upon your 'botherdeness' and the amount in question. In the old days you filled out the paper form with your actual journey made / times, with a chance to explain that you baled and caught the local bus instead of waiting for service restoration / conjuring up a Rail Repalcement Bus.
I was thinking. If the delay is so significant as to force you to abandon your journey surely it's also enough for 100% delay repay. I would also imagine that NRCoT 28.2 kicks into play if you use alternative transport.
That said, with the accompanying change about "published timetable of the day" &c. who knows if they won't just wipe everything from the timetable board on the spot and feign complete ignorance...
You can claim a full refund simply because your reservation will not be honoured (and not travel obviously). The delay does not have to be 'severe'. If a funeral starts at 1200 and the train is going to get you there even a few minutes late, you might well turn round and go home (crematorium slots locally are set for 15 or 30 minutes only).
But equally it's not clear on what basis any delay repay would be due either as how do you calculate the delay incurred? The passenger has not made it to their destination station but gone directly home. Do you base it on when the first bus was arranged or, if sooner (not uncommon with the problem recruiting buses!) the next train to make it to Longbeck?
Or is this passenger now not entitled to any compensation due to this change in the NRCoT whereas previously they would have been able to access a refund due to abandoning their journey?
I have 'evidence' of that happening. See my previous point. The most logical explanation for the (modest) generosity of the rail industry on a certain day is that 'The Software' determined that I had waited patiently at my origin station until the first RRB finally arrived, then proceeded to work out my journey on that basis, then automatically paid Delay Repay on the basis of that delay. I had no opportunity to correct it! Should I appeal that I have been given too much Delay Repay?
The fact that I spotted the disruption whilst at home (praise be Real Time Trains), made my own way (at my own expense) to station 'B' by catching a bus in the opposite direction to the one that would get me to station 'A' and thus reducing my delay cannot be explained to an automated system. I was merely going to ask for the £2.00 (Rishi special) single bus fare plus the lowest level of Delay Repay.
As for your Longbeck to Middlesbrough day return, is your origin to which 'you must now return' Longbeck as per the outward portion or Middlesbrough as per the return portion? And why would you want to return to Middlesbrough when you set out from Longbeck and intended to return there. Presumably you cannot claim 'abandonment' as you have part used the ticket. Or can you. LNER seem to have got round this by abolishing returns, therefore thou shalt return to Middlesbrough whether you want to or not.
