Delay repay, having made an alternative journey

[Wombat]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place! My intention is to avoid a dispute so hopefully it's OK.

Today I arrived at Waterloo with the intention of taking the 17:45 service to Dorking. The station was closed, so I went to London Bridge instead and am on my way back home.

I took a look at the Waterloo departures and, to my surprise, the 17:54 had departed (late) and is likely to arrive at my destination before I do.

My question is: should my delay repay claim be based upon the actual delay I suffer, or the shorter delay that I would have suffered had I caught the 17:54?

Just to complicate matters, there's no guarantee that I would have got through the queues and onto the 17:54 service. Also rumours that they are dispatching empty trains from Waterloo, so I have no idea whether the train carries any passengers at all.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place! My intention is to avoid a dispute so hopefully it's OK.

Today I arrived at Waterloo with the intention of taking the 17:45 service to Dorking. The station was closed, so I went to London Bridge instead and am on my way back home.

I took a look at the Waterloo departures and, to my surprise, the 17:54 had departed (late) and is likely to arrive at my destination before I do.

My question is: should my delay repay claim be based upon the actual delay I suffer, or the shorter delay that I would have suffered had I caught the 17:54?

Just to complicate matters, there's no guarantee that I would have got through the queues and onto the 17:54 service. Also rumours that they are dispatching empty trains from Waterloo, so I have no idea whether the train carries any passengers at all.

Delay compensation is always based on the actual delay you have incurred, regardless of what a notional 'omniscient' passenger could have managed. The only time where this wouldn't apply would be if you took the 'mickey' about the route you ended up taking (i.e. deliberately and obviously lengthening your delay).

 

[yorkie]

My question is: should my delay repay claim be based upon the actual delay I suffer....

This. As you followed advice and acted in good faith to minimise your delay then your claim should be your actual arrival time vs the booked arrival time of the 1745.

 

[bb21]

Best to email your claim in and attach a quick note explaining what you did.

If you do not, the default calculation will be based on the next journey opportunity which means you then will have to go back and explain what you did.

 

[Wombat]

Thank you all for your replies! I will do as you suggest.

By the way, it's probably obvious from the context, but my reference to a 17:45 service was a typo.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Delay compensation is always based on the actual delay you have incurred, regardless of what a notional 'omniscient' passenger could have managed. The only time where this wouldn't apply would be if you took the 'mickey' about the route you ended up taking (i.e. deliberately and obviously lengthening your delay).

As a slight aside, I do sometimes do this (in the event of a delay take a totally different, potentially much longer route in order to avoid the overcrowding that might occur on the next train on the original route) and if I do I put in a claim based on what the quickest sensible alternative I could have taken was, as my choice to take a longer alternative was not the TOC's fault.

 

[js1000]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place! My intention is to avoid a dispute so hopefully it's OK.

Today I arrived at Waterloo with the intention of taking the 17:45 service to Dorking. The station was closed, so I went to London Bridge instead and am on my way back home.

I took a look at the Waterloo departures and, to my surprise, the 17:54 had departed (late) and is likely to arrive at my destination before I do.

My question is: should my delay repay claim be based upon the actual delay I suffer, or the shorter delay that I would have suffered had I caught the 17:54?

Just to complicate matters, there's no guarantee that I would have got through the queues and onto the 17:54 service. Also rumours that they are dispatching empty trains from Waterloo, so I have no idea whether the train carries any passengers at all.

I feel the case you've described is pushing the boat out somewhat given the train you intended to get did depart from Waterloo, albeit 10 minutes late and arrived at its destination within the delay repay claim window? (15 minutes?)

You can apply for delay repay and explain what happened however I feel the TOC would be within their rights to say "the service you intended to travel on arrived within 15 minutes (I'm assuming this). No member of railway staff, whether Network Rail or the TOC, stated that this service was cancelled at the point of origin."

I'm normally quite sympathic towards delay repay claims (i.e. passengers claims are valid on the service they intended to travel on - they can choose to seek other travel means and do not have to travel on the next service for a delay repay claim to be valid) If the train you originally wanted to get was delayed by 15+ minutes or cancelled then you have a valid claim IMO.

 

[MikeWh]

I feel the case you've described is pushing the boat out somewhat given the train you intended to get did depart from Waterloo, albeit 10 minutes late and arrived at its destination within the delay repay claim window? (15 minutes?)

You can apply for delay repay and explain what happened however I feel the TOC would be within their rights to say "the service you intended to travel on arrived within 15 minutes (I'm assuming this). No member of railway staff, whether Network Rail or the TOC, stated that this service was cancelled at the point of origin."

I think you're taking a harsh and uninformed view of this situation. The OP said the station was closed. This may have been due to overcrowding. Do you know whether there were staff on the entrances and what advice they were giving? Also, the train departed 17 minutes late and slipped further such that arrival everwhere else was at least 20 minutes late. There is also the suggestion that trains were being dispatched empty from Waterloo. Would TRUST know the difference if that had been the case?

 

[bb21]

Waterloo was subject to crowd control measures tonight so there shouldn't be an issue claiming I would imagine.

 

[bb21]

Would TRUST know the difference if that had been the case?

TRUST should do but it can fail sometimes, especially during big disruption.