Delay repay is a nice little earner.

[robbeech]

According to today’s evening standard.

Please do not pursue your policy to persuade the trains to run on time.
I make close to £1000 a year in Delay Repay. If there are 500 other passengers similarly disadvantaged by Southern Railway, that amounts to half a million pounds a year that they pay us.
Please don’t discourage them.

Some people clearly don’t quite get it I suppose.

 

[gordonthemoron]

well, it's a fair point

 

[E_Reeves]

"Persuade the trains to run on time". It's like they think they're purposely delaying them!

 

[Clip]

The author is a bit silly as he doesnt make anything at all form it as its just a repayment of money he has already spent

 

[Oxfordblues]

It's tempting when you board a train that's 59 minutes late to take longer than necessary so that it loses another couple of minutes and you go over the one-hour threshold for a full refund (though I've never done this!)

 

[Ianno87]

It's tempting when you board a train that's 59 minutes late to take longer than necessary so that it loses another couple of minutes and you go over the one-hour threshold for a full refund (though I've never done this!)

I'm guilty of silently willing trains that are 29/59 minutes late just to lose that extra minute or two...

Seriously, as much as I believe in a well-performing railway, Delay Repay is a "plus" of railways. Not as if you get money back when you get stuck in a traffic jam whilst driving...

 

[Bletchleyite]

It also encourages the TOCs to run on time as far as is possible, as the cost is not desirable to them.

 

[Ianno87]

It also encourages the TOCs to run on time as far as is possible, as the cost is not desirable to them.

I think it's effectively priced into a franchise contract - hence why moving to 15 minute Delay Repay usually coincides with a franchise change/Direct Award.

Obviously, it is then the TOCs incentive to keep it within budget!

 

[SSp]

I know someone who works for the NHS who keeps all his Delay Repay. I keep threatening an FOI

 

[yorkie]

I know someone who works for the NHS who keeps all his Delay Repay. I keep threatening an FOI

An FOI on what?

You can't expect the NHS to keep a log of how many of their employees are delayed on rail journeys?

It's tempting when you board a train that's 59 minutes late to take longer than necessary so that it loses another couple of minutes and you go over the one-hour threshold for a full refund (though I've never done this!)

Done what?

I'm guilty of silently willing trains that are 29/59 minutes late just to lose that extra minute or two...

Seriously, as much as I believe in a well-performing railway, Delay Repay is a "plus" of railways. Not as if you get money back when you get stuck in a traffic jam whilst driving...

I agree on both counts!

 

[SSp]

An FOI on what?

You can't expect the NHS to keep a log of how many of their employees are delayed on rail journeys?

Done what?


I agree on both counts!

Delay refunds should go back to the taxpayer rather than public servants being paid twice by us.

 

[Ianno87]

Delay refunds should go back to the taxpayer rather than public servants being paid twice by us.

Some employers don't have a stated policy on Delay Repay.

If not, and a delay on your way home from a meeting eats into your personal time, child care arrangements etc. some might argue a personal Delay Repay claim is reasonable as compensation.

(I don't run the risk my current employer, who have no stated policy I am aware of)

 

[HH]

The cost of delay repay is not just the cost of the compensation. It actually costs quite a lot (£3-6 would be a reasonable estimate) to process the claims - and it hits the smaller and shorter distance (and better performing!) TOCs harder*.

* Because there are fixed costs, so the less claims you have, the less you can spread those costs.

 

[Dore & Totley]

Delay refunds should go back to the taxpayer rather than public servants being paid twice by us.

On what grounds should this happen? My employer doesn't pay for my travel costs .Why should they keep any delay repay?

 

[LowLevel]

If you happen to be time rich but money poor I can see the attraction of running late I guess!

 

[noddingdonkey]

I know someone who works for the NHS who keeps all his Delay Repay. I keep threatening an FOI

At the public sector organisation I work for, if I am away from base for a day for a course or conference or similar I just get paid for my usual hours regardless of how long I was travelling for. So yesterday, I was on the 06.27 to Newcastle for a 9am start and didn't get back until after 19.30, but it goes down as the equivalent of 9-5 on the timesheet.

On that basis, if I am delayed I don't think it's unreasonable for me to benefit from the Delay Repay, as it was me who incurred the inconvenience of the delay, not the employer.

 

[Skie]

Delay refunds should go back to the taxpayer rather than public servants being paid twice by us.

It's compensation for the wasted time caused by a delay, not a refund. The employer still got them to the destination and got their hours out of them.

The DFT's policy is: If you are delayed going to a work event, and the delay causes you to miss or arrive late to the work event, then the delay compensation is owed to the business. If you are travelling home or to hotel accommodation, then the compensation is for you to use. You shouldn't claim flexible working hours or extra travel time in the latter instance.

Which is perfectly reasonable. Demanding all compensation to go to an employer is just going to make people not bother to submit claims. Simple as.

 

[Scotty]

On what grounds should this happen? My employer doesn't pay for my travel costs .Why should they keep any delay repay?

Some people have jobs where they travel between sites during the day... and this travel is paid for by their employer.

 

[Chrisgr31]

I am very sceptical that one can validly get to £1,000 delay repay a year. Delay repay is calculated on 464 single journeys, so 232 return journeys or 46 weeks and 2 days (assuming a 5 day week) Most of us have 5 weeks holiday plus 2 weeks bank holidays so actual only travel for 45 weeks, assuming no illness, working from home etc. You then need to pick up either a 2 hour delay once a week or 8 fifteen minute delays a week. I am on the Uckfield line and even I get nowhere near that!

 

[Dr Hoo]

During a week at the height of the Northern timetable collapse earlier in the year a relative of mine who used Northern, TransPennine and Virgin East Coast on a total of 12 journeys in a week got the entirety of their fares back through Delay Repay (after enduring a collosal amount of disruption, of course).

 

[robbeech]

£1000 per year for someone who is paying that per week for a season ticket is not necessarily that hard to achieve though. We don’t know the situation the person is in. Maybe they hold a Manchester to London 1st annual season in which case £1000 for the year is likely achievable. I once got 2/3 of an ALR back when there was significant disruption on 3 days of the 7.

 

[yorkie]

Delay refunds should go back to the taxpayer rather than public servants being paid twice by us.

Surely you are not suggesting that someone who is delayed on their way home after a meeting at a remote location should somehow not be entitled to compensation for the delay getting home?!

I am still none the wiser as to what information your proposed FOI request would be seeking to obtain, but however you word it, the information is not going to be held!

 

[yorkie]

I am very sceptical that one can validly get to £1,000 delay repay a year. Delay repay is calculated on 464 single journeys, so 232 return journeys or 46 weeks and 2 days (assuming a 5 day week) Most of us have 5 weeks holiday plus 2 weeks bank holidays so actual only travel for 45 weeks, assuming no illness, working from home etc. You then need to pick up either a 2 hour delay once a week or 8 fifteen minute delays a week. I am on the Uckfield line and even I get nowhere near that!

Delay Repay could apply to an expensive Season ticket, or to a costly Single or Return ticket.

If you bought an Uckfield to Manchester Anytime Return and were delayed on either portion for 2 hours or more, you'd be over a third of the way towards £1,000 for one delay alone.

Some people do a lot of travelling for work, pleasure, or both, and they might purchase expensive tickets.

 

[Skie]

VTWC open returns can be ~£350 (and a last minute advance on a busy train not far off that total both ways) so it would be possible to hit £1k in a month if you made one trip each week and had typical luck with Virgin, so over a full year it really isnt that crazy an amount.

 

[Chrisgr31]

They might but the initial letter specifically mentions Southern Rail

 

[yorkie]

They might but the initial letter specifically mentions Southern Rail

It doesn't state the journeys were exclusively made with GTR's Southern branded services.

If the delay is down to GTR, they will be liable for the full value of the ticket(s) held if the customer is delayed into their final destination (which could potentially be a long way from the GTR network) by a qualifying amount.

The way I read it is that the customer received over £1,000 in Delay Repay which could potentially be for any journeys.

The next sentence does mention Southern, but it could simply be a reference to the most common brand of service they experienced delays on, not necessarily that all their delayed journeys were on trains operated by GTR.

And even if GTR was the sole company responsible for such delays (which is also possible) there is nothing to say the journeys did not involve connecting onto longer distance services.

In summary: there is nowhere near sufficient information to form any sort of conclusion.

 

[whhistle]

The author is a bit silly as he doesnt make anything at all form it as its just a repayment of money he has already spent

They get a free set of journeys.

That's like me going to the supermarket, spending £1000 on food, then getting a refund of that £1000. I still have the food.

Most of us have 5 weeks holiday plus 2 weeks bank holidays so actual only travel for 45 weeks

I'd suggest most people these days don't get bank holidays off.

 

[Silver Cobra]

I'm guilty of silently willing trains that are 29/59 minutes late just to lose that extra minute or two...

I must admit that I was doing the same thing when travelling back from Edinburgh to Stevenage back at the end of July. The train was around 30-35 minutes late for most of the journey, but by the penultimate stop (for me) of York, it was on the verge of being less than 30 minutes late by the time it reached Stevenage. "Thankfully", a bull wandered onto the tracks just north of Peterborough, which pushed the delay up to 43 minutes by Stevenage :P

 

[jopsuk]

I'm guilty of silently willing trains that are 29/59 minutes late just to lose that extra minute or two...

Oh god yeah. I'd rather not be delayed at all, but given the choice between 59 minutes late and 61 minutes lat I know which one I prefer!

Seriously, as much as I believe in a well-performing railway, Delay Repay is a "plus" of railways. Not as if you get money back when you get stuck in a traffic jam whilst driving...

Do coach services run any similar schemes? Congestion on the roads of course costs a bit more in fuel, even if you've got a hybrid or an auto stop-start. And as for taxis, a traffic jam will see your fare shoot up!

 

[furnessvale]

They get a free set of journeys.

That's like me going to the supermarket, spending £1000 on food, then getting a refund of that £1000. I still have the food.

Not quite the same. To make a fair comparison you would have to consider that the supermarket food is now possibly out of date and would have to be discarded.