Delay repay. Do you bother?

[Ken H]

Do you take time to claim delay repay? Is there a threshold between 'cant be bothered' and making the claim?
One wonders how much delay is never reclaimed.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Yes. Every penny, and in the way that benefits me most (ie free tickets off Northern whenever possible)

 

[NorthWestRover]

I claim for Northern comp tickets. And I claimed a 25% off TPE recently. If I'm on a rover or ranger which is most of my travel, it would need to be a proper delay that disrupted some set plans rather than a train that I was on being delayed, even if that technically delayed my journey.

 

[AlterEgo]

Depends on the value. If it’s less than a fiver I don’t bother.

 

[miklcct]

For me, if I am following a timetable, I always claim if the delay reaches 15 minutes (I had encountered exactly 15 minutes in the past and claimed successfully, but also encountered some 13 or 14 minutes as well which fell under the threshold).

However, if I'm taking the train in a turn-up-and-go manner, especially in local journeys such as Bournemouth - Poole in the evening peak, I don't claim even if the train I'm on is a delayed train unless I am actually stuck on the train causing my journey time to be extended by more than 15 minutes.

 

[miklcct]

Depends on the value. If it’s less than a fiver I don’t bother.

Is it the ticket value or the compensation value?

 

[306024]

When I had a full fare annual season ticket for a few years, I did if the delay was the railway’s fault, e.g. infrastructure / train failure, cancellations for no crew. Certainly not for a fatality, didn’t seem the morally correct thing to do.

 

[WesternLancer]

I always try to claim (and help family etc to claim) - small sums I have opted to donate to charity however. Think I claimed 50p late last year.

I am sure a large number of people do not bother / get round to it however.

 

[HST274]

I claim wherever possible but below £5 I donate to charity. Like @WesternLancer I help others out too in my family. Above half an hour I think people look for a refund but many don't know/don't care you can claim above 15 minutes (which often doesn't bring back a lot of money).

 

[AlterEgo]

Is it the ticket value or the compensation value?

Compensation value. I just can't be bothered for less to be honest.

 

[nedchester]

Every time especially with Northern with free tickets.

 

[miklcct]

Compensation value. I just can't be bothered for less to be honest.

Most of my claims are under a fiver but they add up:

2022-02-06 £3.52 for 15-29 minutes due to delay on a Bournemouth - Woking train causing missed connection, catching the train half an hour afterwards
2021-12-18 £3.90 for 30-59 minutes due to Southern service cancellation
2021-11-14 £5.95 for 60-119 minutes due to failure to call by an SWR replacement bus from Bournemouth - Eastleigh hence missed connection on the only direct train in the morning to Farnborough, and the timetable is written a way that 30 minutes late into Eastleigh will result in 80 minutes delay due to additional change at Basingstoke into a slow service
2021-09-24 £27.83 for 60-119 minutes due to signalling fault affecting an XC train from Bournemouth - Birmingham
2021-05-27 £2 for 15-29 minutes due to delay on Brighton - Southampton service, in addition to confusing signage at Southampton resulting in a missed connection

For a 15-minute delay, the ticket value needs to be over £40 return to reach £5 compensation, and for a 30-minute delay, £20 return. For people live south of London not on the Thameslink line, it's unusual to have an off-peak return journey over £40 without crossing London, when all the fare saving tools such as railcards and split ticketing are used, and once a journey involve crossing London on a flexible ticket basically there won't be any hope of getting delay repay for the whole journey because of the "generous" allowance given, that in practice catching the train half an hour before the itinerary is commonplace.

If you don't claim when the compensation value is under a fiver, I think you will have already given up many delay repays for delays under an hour.

 

[6Gman]

When I had a full fare annual season ticket for a few years, I did if the delay was the railway’s fault, e.g. infrastructure / train failure, cancellations for no crew. Certainly not for a fatality, didn’t seem the morally correct thing to do.

I think I've only ever claimed twice.

Once from Virgin West Coast because they handled the disruption poorly (in my view).

Once from LNW/WMT or whatever they were called at the time. A West Coast Rail charter had sat down on the main line and I hoped they would be caned for it.

I certainly wouldn't claim for a fatality, flooding or similar.

Mind you, since most of my travel is short to medium distance it's not as though I'm shelling out £100+ for tickets.

 

[WesternLancer]

Of course many people affected by a delay may not even be aware of a fatality being the cause. Having said that are their not some categories where D-R is not payable despite the delay, and is a fatality one such example?

 

[PeterY]

I've only claimed once and it was £30 and I was very late . Generally speaking most of my delays are minor and I could only claim peanuts (next to nothing) so it's not worth the stress. To be honest, I'm thankful that I've got to my destination.

 

[RPI]

I must admit I do, I have a priv rate flexi-season and I claim everything, if its 15-29 minutes this means 24p which I always claim as a voucher, I then save all the vouchers until I have a decent amount when I renew, petty? Yes probably but I have to pay for my ticket even though the TOC i travel on is owned (mostly) by the TOC i work for but have no reciprocal residential travel agreement!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I tend to, yes, though I sometimes won't if it was definitely not the TOC's fault e.g. a suicide. However if I believe something like a suicide was handled badly (e.g. poor information provision), in goes the claim. It feels nice to be able to financially penalise the TOC for poor operations at my discretion.

 

[jfollows]

I have never claimed Delay Repay but, to be fair, I have travelled very little by train since 2020. I would consider it as others have said if I were very late and/or the railway handled the disruption badly, if I get to my destination even if I'm late enough to qualify I can't generally be bothered.

 

[swt_passenger]

Of course many people affected by a delay may not even be aware of a fatality being the cause. Having said that are their not some categories where D-R is not payable despite the delay, and is a fatality one such example?

AIUI with delay-repay there is no longer an exclusion for events previously considered outside the railway’s control.

 

[cuccir]

Usually, even for relatively small amounts. Yes it takes a little time but if that was time I'd have otherwise spent eg messing about on web-forums such as this, it's not like I would have been doing some more productive anyway! Occaisioanlly when life is very busy and spare time at a premium I've skipped small claims but most of the time I have the capacity to do so.

 

[Haywain]

Every time, no amount too small! It’s a contractual entitlement and you wouldn’t accept being overcharged, so why refuse compensation?

 

[Hadders]

Rail fares are expensive enough so I claim every time.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Thank you for reminding me I must claim from Franklin Monday!

 

[m_m]

Do you take time to claim delay repay? Is there a threshold between 'cant be bothered' and making the claim?
One wonders how much delay is never reclaimed.

I claim every penny I'm entitled to and I don't consider the reason for the delay. If I travelled with the wrong ticket (paid a few pounds less) then I'm sure the TOCs wouldn't care about my reason and also, the comms on the railway gives generic 'reasons' for delays.

I just view it as black and white, it says I get £XX for XX amount of delay, so that is what I claim.

 

[Taunton]

I suspect that members here are a substantial outlier compared to the overall travelling public, where likely a majority have no idea how it works.

It would be good if the operators would announce what the actual uptake percentage is that is paid. They must know from their own statistics what the proportion is from those who become entitled. My guess is it's less than 5%.

 

[JonathanH]

Not worth the bother when I often have tickets where I might have started short or ended early and the delay repay process requires the whole journey to be claimed - eg I might have been delayed making a connection south of London but took much less than the advertised time to cross London.

 

[WesternLancer]

AIUI with delay-repay there is no longer an exclusion for events previously considered outside the railway’s control.

Ah thanks for the clarification.

My own view is that the 'system' is set up to finance these costs (eg in franchise era the costs of that would have been factored in to the bid) - it is also a key way to crate a financial incentive to prevent delays. It is thus important to claim the money - if no one did then that part of the incentive regime would not work as it was designed.

Tho I do wonder now the DfT are running the finances and the show they may regret what they committed to!

It would be good if the operators would announce what the actual uptake percentage is that is paid. They must know from their own statistics what the proportion is from those who become entitled. My guess is it's less than 5%.

Yes, and no doubt that sort of figure is also factored into TOC calculations

 

[swt_passenger]

Ah thanks for the clarification.

My own view is that the 'system' is set up to finance these costs (eg in franchise era the costs of that would have been factored in to the bid) - it is also a key way to crate a financial incentive to prevent delays. It is thus important to claim the money - if no one did then that part of the incentive regime would not work as it was designed.

Tho I do wonder now the DfT are running the finances and the show they may regret what they committed to!

I’m pretty sure that a possibly unexpected consequence was possibly people claiming delay repay for planned engineering works diversions, on the basis of the timetable in force when they bought their ticket, or season. That’s probably one reason why the latest NRCofT introduced this new concept of the “published timetable of the day”…

 

[Essexman]

I claim unless it's only a few pounds but not for fatalities or anything else that isn't directly the railways' fault, such as weather.

 

[AlterEgo]

it is also a key way to crate a financial incentive to prevent delays. It is thus important to claim the money - if no one did then that part of the incentive regime would not work as it was designed.

Delay Repay is not an incentive regime. You are conflating this with Schedule 8 payments between NR and its customer TOCs which are an order of magnitidue more impactful that Delay Repay, which is a pittance by comparison.

Delay Repay is merely a mechanism to compensate passengers who have not arrived on time.