PhilipW
Member
I fairly regularly travel from Fareham to Crewkerne using a through Off Peak Return ticket.
This involves two trains, the GWR Portsmouth to Cardiff service then, changing at Salisbury, the SWR Waterloo to Exeter service. Both services are hourly with an advertised connection time at Salisbury of 8 mins (xx.39 to xx.47). As this is fairly popular connection there is often a station announcement along the lines of “Will passengers for stations to Exeter please proceed to Platform 3 where their train will shortly be arriving”.
Normally everything goes fine, but on one journey the GWR trains was approx. 10 mins late leaving Fareham and maintained that delay to Salisbury. There I rushed across to Platform 3 but missed the connection by just 2 minutes and had to wait 58 mins. There were 14 of us that day, I counted, who came up and missed that connection. Speaking to a SWR member of staff, he said that the missed connection was not common but, on the other hand, it was not unusual, it did happen from time to time.
As my journey was now 1 hour late, I submitted a Delay/Repay request to GWR on my return home along with an accompanying letter explaining the circumstances in full, which acknowledged that their train was only 10 mins or so late.
My claim was rejected stating that their service was not late. The wording was so loose that it was not clear if they thought that their service was not late at all so I should have made the connection or that their service was not late enough to trigger a refund in its own right. I suspect that it was an automatic computerised response as there was no mention of my specific journey or any connection. I wrote back and appealed the decision but heard no more from GWR so I dropped it.
My question is: As it was my journey that was 60 mins rather than any train being late, am I even entitled to a refund ? I don’t know the answer to that.
Is the Delay/Repay applicable for a ‘late journey’ or just a ‘late train’ ? I hope it is the former. If it is just the latter, then I think it would affect a lot of travel across the country. In that light the Repay scheme would not be as comprehensive as the government and train companies would sometimes like us to believe.
If the scheme does indeed apply to ‘late journies’ could anyone advise on what tact I should use with GWR. They seem unreceptive to cases like mine.
This involves two trains, the GWR Portsmouth to Cardiff service then, changing at Salisbury, the SWR Waterloo to Exeter service. Both services are hourly with an advertised connection time at Salisbury of 8 mins (xx.39 to xx.47). As this is fairly popular connection there is often a station announcement along the lines of “Will passengers for stations to Exeter please proceed to Platform 3 where their train will shortly be arriving”.
Normally everything goes fine, but on one journey the GWR trains was approx. 10 mins late leaving Fareham and maintained that delay to Salisbury. There I rushed across to Platform 3 but missed the connection by just 2 minutes and had to wait 58 mins. There were 14 of us that day, I counted, who came up and missed that connection. Speaking to a SWR member of staff, he said that the missed connection was not common but, on the other hand, it was not unusual, it did happen from time to time.
As my journey was now 1 hour late, I submitted a Delay/Repay request to GWR on my return home along with an accompanying letter explaining the circumstances in full, which acknowledged that their train was only 10 mins or so late.
My claim was rejected stating that their service was not late. The wording was so loose that it was not clear if they thought that their service was not late at all so I should have made the connection or that their service was not late enough to trigger a refund in its own right. I suspect that it was an automatic computerised response as there was no mention of my specific journey or any connection. I wrote back and appealed the decision but heard no more from GWR so I dropped it.
My question is: As it was my journey that was 60 mins rather than any train being late, am I even entitled to a refund ? I don’t know the answer to that.
Is the Delay/Repay applicable for a ‘late journey’ or just a ‘late train’ ? I hope it is the former. If it is just the latter, then I think it would affect a lot of travel across the country. In that light the Repay scheme would not be as comprehensive as the government and train companies would sometimes like us to believe.
If the scheme does indeed apply to ‘late journies’ could anyone advise on what tact I should use with GWR. They seem unreceptive to cases like mine.
