Delay Repay Assistance

[The_Train]

Hi guys, had a bit of a nightmare trek across the rail network in Friday and before I start to stick claims into TOCs I thought I'd run things by you guys first to make sure I'm claiming from the correct TOC.

The outline of my journey was a Return from Stafford to Cardiff Central with split tickets which I will detail below. Firstly though here is my planned itinerary for the day:

0653 Stafford to Tamworth 0714
0750 Tamworth to Bristol Temple Meads 0939
1221 Bristol Temple Meads to Cardiff Central 1322
1800 Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads 1853
1930 Bristol Temple Meads to Tamworth 2119
2135 Tamworth to Stafford 2158

And my tickets were as follows:

Stafford to Tamworth (Anytime Day RTN)
Tamworth to Cheltenham Spa (Advance SGL)
Cheltenham to Bristol Temple Meads (Off Peak Day RTN)
Bristol Temple Meads to Cardiff Central (Off Peak Day RTN)
Cheltenham Spa to Tamworth (Advance SGL)

The outward journey went awry at Tamworth as the 0750 to Plymouth was being curtailed at Birmingham New Street. However a change onto another service meant I was 'only' 27 minutes late into Bristol. The rest of the outbound went to plan.

However, the return wasn't so much fun. My trip from Cardiff to Bristol was fine but the 1930 from Bristol to Tamworth was 5 late leaving Bristol, then 8 late into Cheltenham before finally arriving into New Street 9 late. None of this was a bother as a swift turnaround at Birmingham would still allow me to catch the 2135 connection at Tamworth. However, it was announced at New Street that we would be held there awaiting the arrival of the late running 1M70 to Manchester Piccadilly to allow those wanting to connect to Leeds to join our service. This meant a 20 minute wait at New Street, leaving 22 late and eventually getting me into Tamworth 22 late at 2140 (5 minutes after my connection had left). Not to worry as I'd already checked during our layover at New Street and the 2215 LNWR service to Crewe was on the move so I could jump on that at Tamworth. Unfortunately that service was cancelled at Rugby so I was then reliant on the last train to Stafford - the 2310 LNWR from Tamworth which eventually arrived into Stafford 11 late at 2344, 106 minutes after my planned arrival.

So my questions are:

Do I just make a claim against XC for the entirety of my return journey?
Or
Do I just make a claim against XC for the journey from Bristol Temple Meads to Stafford?
Or
Do I split the claim between XC and LNWR?
Or
Is there a completely different way for me to make a claim?

As ever thanks in advance

 

[agbrs_Jack]

As CrossCountry do not allow claims of under 30m, you cannot claim your outbound journey.

I would be claiming Cardiff Central to Stafford and detailing the relevant information in the 'additional information' box.

Claim from CrossCountry as they caused a consequential delay (a delay that caused the whole journey to be delayed).

 

[gray1404]

No claim on outward journey.

Return journey, claim from Cross Country.

 

[xotGD]

Just wondering whether the Cardiff to Bristol leg can be classed as part of the same journey - did you have a complete itinerary or was this leg booked separately?

 

[JBuchananGB]

The usual received wisdom is that an approved journey planner will generate the itinerary it is considered to be one journey.

I have generated the itinerary for this journey for this coming Friday using fastjp.com. Click here to see it.

So @The_Train should be able to claim from Cross Country for all legs of the delayed journey.

 

[The_Train]

Just wondering whether the Cardiff to Bristol leg can be classed as part of the same journey - did you have a complete itinerary or was this leg booked separately?

It was a complete itinerary that I generated using Trainsplit. I have to admit to doing something I don't usually do in that I used Trainsplit to find my cheapest options and then used Trainpal to order the tickets as I had a load of vouchers to use on there which offered further savings

 

[The_Train]

Thanks for the responses guys, it's as I thought to be honest but always good to get clarity.

I always knew the outward journey wouldn't be eligible for delay repay as it was under 30 minutes. Just out of interest though, is there anything I can do to argue the fact that I lost my seat reservations on the Tamworth-Bristol legs as I was booked on a nice comfortable 7 car HST set but ended up wedged in the vestibule of a 4 car Voyager from Tamworth to New Street. Admittedly there was plenty of space on the 5 car Voyager from Brum to Bristol so a seat was easy to find for that leg - it was still a Voyager though and that in itself should be enough to warrant a complaint