Advice Regarding Split tickets and delays

[SWT444PORTS]

Hi All,

Just after a bit of advice regarding split ticket validity where a delay means you miss your connection.

Currently on a delayed GC service from York to King's Cross.

We have split tickets, York to King's Cross (advance single), and then London Underground Zone 1 to Portsmouth and Southsea (advance single).

Due to a broken rail, the guard has advised that we're not expecting to be arriving into King's Cross until approx 30 mins after our scheduled arrival time, and I think it'll be tight making our connection (the 15:00 from Waterloo).

As we have 2 separate advance singles, York to King's X and London to Portsmouth), can we use our advance single from Waterloo to Portsmouth on the next available train? I know with an advance single all the way through we'd be fine but wasn't sure how it worked with split tickets!

Thanks in advance ☺️

 

[Mike395]

Yes, you'll be fine. Passenger rights are the same with split tickets (generally speaking - but certainly in any way that applies to this particular case!) as if you had a through ticket during disruption. I'd expect no issues with travelling on the later SWR service.

 

[SWT444PORTS]

Yes, you'll be fine. Passenger rights are the same with split tickets (generally speaking - but certainly in any way that applies to this particular case!) as if you had a through ticket during disruption. I'd expect no issues with travelling on the later SWR service.

Thanks very much, that's put my mind at rest a bit! Hopefully we'll make the original train as planned though I'm not full of confidence!

Cheers

 

[Watershed]

Remember that if you are sufficiently delayed, you can claim delay compensation based on the combined cost of all of your split tickets. As long as your tickets join up (which they do here, as you have one ticket to the Kings Cross National Rail station and another valid from the Kings Cross Underground station across London to Portsmouth) then split tickets are still considered to constitute one journey with according rights.

Unfortunately, for delays caused by Grand Central, you need to be at least 60 minutes late to be eligible to claim anything - this makes them one of the stingiest TOCs out there in terms of delay compensation policy, as almost all others offer compensation for 30+ min delays, and many offer it for 15+ mins. As there are generally 2-3 trains per hour from Waterloo to Portsmouth, it's unlikely you will be as much as 60 mins late - unless there is also disruption affecting that part of your journey.

 

[Fenchurch SP]

Remember that if you are sufficiently delayed, you can claim delay compensation based on the combined cost of all of your split tickets. As long as your tickets join up (which they do here, as you have one ticket to the Kings Cross National Rail station and another valid from the Kings Cross Underground station across London to Portsmouth) then split tickets are still considered to constitute one journey with according rights.

Unfortunately, for delays caused by Grand Central, you need to be at least 60 minutes late to be eligible to claim anything - this makes them one of the stingiest TOCs out there in terms of delay compensation policy, as almost all others offer compensation for 30+ min delays, and many offer it for 15+ mins. As there are generally 2-3 trains per hour from Waterloo to Portsmouth, it's unlikely you will be as much as 60 mins late - unless there is also disruption affecting that part of your journey.

So if they were delayed by 30 minutes on the GC train and another 30 between London and Portsmouth would they be able to claim for the full 60 from SWR.?

 

[AlterEgo]

So if they were delayed by 30 minutes on the GC train and another 30 between London and Portsmouth would they be able to claim for the full 60 from SWR.?

From GC, if your delay into your final destination was 60 minutes later than your booked one.

 

[30907]

So if they were delayed by 30 minutes on the GC train and another 30 between London and Portsmouth would they be able to claim for the full 60 from SWR.?

No, from GC, as theirs was the first delay. Not that they will like it!

 

[Watershed]

So if they were delayed by 30 minutes on the GC train and another 30 between London and Portsmouth would they be able to claim for the full 60 from SWR.?

The principle for multi-operator journeys is that the first operator whose train is delayed or cancelled, in a way that causes your journey to become disrupted, is liable for all delay compensation. Their delay compensation policy and threshold therefore applies. That remains true even if the journey is further delayed later on.

It works against the passenger in this direction, since Grand Central are likely to avoid being liable for any compensation due to their high delay threshold and the high frequency of SWR services (plus the highly padded cross-London connection times).

But for the same journey in reverse, the same rule works in the passenger's favour. The low frequency of GC services together with SWR's Delay Repay 15 policy means SWR could be liable for a large amount of Delay Repay (potentially 100% of the cost of the ticket) following a missed connection, even if the SWR train is only 10 or 15 minutes late.