Delay repay two TOCs both trains late

[trainophile]

Coming back to Carlisle from Whitehaven today on the 1438, the train was terminated at Workington due to not having a replacement guard, and we had to wait for the 1601 to Carlisle.

Tickets are Advances Whitehaven to Southport, changing at Carlisle and Wigan.

At Carlisle we had obviously missed our booked 1608 to Wigan North Western, but luckily the 1649 Glasgow to Euston was running a bit late and we went over the bridge to get it. However it was eventually 38 minutes late arriving at Wigan, which meant we had to get the 1901 to Southport, and will arrive 53 later than our original itinerary.

Presumably I claim from Northern as they caused the initial delay, but in explaining the timings they may pick up on the further VT delay and try to refer me to them.

To complicate matters I bought the tickets on the TPE website.

Am I right in thinking the refund (I realise it’s only half the cost) should be fully made by Northern? If so it probably isn’t worth it for the complications and several months wait!

 

[yorkie]

Presumably I claim from Northern as they caused the initial delay, but in explaining the timings they may pick up on the further VT delay and try to refer me to them.

Yes, you claim from Northern. It was their delay that caused you to miss your booked train.

Simply state that your actual arrival time was 53 minutes late.

There is no need to write anything about any further delay.

To complicate matters I bought the tickets on the TPE website.

The retailer has nothing to do with a Delay Repay claim.

Am I right in thinking the refund (I realise it’s only half the cost) should be fully made by Northern? If so it probably isn’t worth it for the complications and several months wait!

Compensation is due from Northern.

If you make a prompt claim using their online form (or, if their form does not let you choose your original itinerary, I would forward your original booking confirmation email, along with stating that the delay to their train caused you to be 53 minutes late) they may actually pay very promptly, so you may not have plans long wait.

If you make the claim sound complicated and/or delay putting the claim in, this could result in a lengthy wait.

 

[trainophile]

A very good point about over complicating it! I will just state the basic time details and if they want any more information they can ask for it.

Annoyingly we were actually 55 minutes late on final arrival.

 

[yorkie]

Keep it simple and avoid saying things like "Coming back to Carlisle from Whitehaven today", that just makes me confused!

e.g. "Today I travelled from Whitehaven to Southport (see booking confirmation email below, showing the trains I intended to catch), departing at xx:xx.

Your xxx:xx train terminated at Workington; we followed instructions to board the next available trains. As we missed our connections, we arrived into Southport at xx:xx, a total of 55 minutes late.

Therefore, please pay Delay Repay compensation for this delay. I have attached a photograph of the ticket(s) I used for my journey, for which I paid a total of £xx.xx"

Keep it simple and concise.

 

[trainophile]

Thank you, that's perfect. I do tend to waffle on a bit .

 

[trainophile]

Just to add that the other mildly concerning issue is I can't prove we were actually on the 1438 from Whitehaven, and the only timed train was the Virgin from Carlisle. However I don't suppose they will argue the toss about that!

 

[yorkie]

I do not understand your concern.

You will provide the relevant evidence in the form of the email containing your original itinerary and a photograph of your ticket.

No further "proof" is required (other than I'd keep the physical ticket just in case) and I do not see how there ever could be such a requirement.

 

[gray1404]

It is annoying when you are just under the one hour required to get a bit more delay repay. My friend had this when he and I were travelling on a ticket to Southport. He arrived just under an hour late. However, I was travelling onto Formby (on a separate ticket) so - once you added the additional wait for the next Liverpool train - I arrived 60 minutes late exactly so got double the amount of compensation.

 

[trainophile]

I do not understand your concern.

You will provide the relevant evidence in the form of the email containing your original itinerary and a photograph of your ticket.

No further "proof" is required (other than I'd keep the physical ticket just in case) and I do not see how there ever could be such a requirement.

May have deleted the original email as I bought the tickets a while ago, but I'm not going to get any more stressed about it tonight! It's been a long day, we left Southport at 0747 this morning (having walked a mile to the station) and didn't get back until 1933 so a bit brain dead now. Good to know that photocopied tickets are acceptable though, I was a bit worried about sending the originals.

Thanks for all your help, and yes gray1404 I was willing a few more minutes on the final leg of the journey but it was not to be.

Compared with the problems being faced yesterday, tomorrow and Saturday by would-be Northern users I don't have much to complain about!

 

[bb21]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with yorkie on what details to include in your claim email.

In my professional opinion, if your journey involved a leg on a different operator to the company you are claiming from, always include in tabular format, as a minimum, booked times of your intended itinerary, and the actual departure/arrival times of each leg (in a second table where they differ from the trains you intended to take). If you could include booked times for the actual trains you took then even better.

While case-handlers can normally look up times and second-guess trains people actually took where they deviate from their intended itinerary, this only goes back a certain number of days. Beyond that timescale, it is not possible to look up times of another company's service without referring it to the operator. It is not unknown for cases to be delayed in the process, so it helps avoid unnecessary additional delay if one could supply all the useful details to help the case-handler to help yourself.

If you only state how much you were eventually delayed without the case-handler being able to verify which services you used, you claim is more likely to be rejected.

 

[gray1404]

I didn't realise the cases were looked at in so much detail. I've always said something like: The delay to the 14:49 service caused me to miss my connection at X and I arrived at my destination Y 60 minutes late. I'll have to include more details next time but I have been weary of overloading them with too much information.

 

[yorkie]

May have deleted the original email as I bought the tickets a while ago...!

Log into your account, view your booking (full details), then email this page.

 

[bb21]

I didn't realise the cases were looked at in so much detail. I've always said something like: The delay to the 14:49 service caused me to miss my connection at X and I arrived at my destination Y 60 minutes late. I'll have to include more details next time but I have been weary of overloading them with too much information.

If the claim were late being processed, it would very much be needed. Not so much otherwise.

 

[trainophile]

I'm doing the online claim form, and entered £17.80 (x2) in the cost of ticket field, but this has rejected as it obviously doesn't like the format. How do I claim for two tickets? Do I need to make two claims?

Edit: Just thought, I'm attaching a photo of both tickets so I'll just put £35.60 in the price field. They can work it out from that presumably.

 

[yorkie]

I would forward your original booking confirmation email, along with the relevant details.

If you wish to use their form, I would enter the total value of the tickets.

 

[trainophile]

I would forward your original booking confirmation email, along with the relevant details.

If you wish to use their form, I would enter the total value of the tickets.

Well I've winged it off now, still got the original tickets in case needed but I attached a photo of them to the online form in the relevant place. My itinerary wasn't shown in the trains they listed to select from when I put in the date and time, but there was a box for entering the details if this was the case. I'll just see what happens. After all, if I couldn't have afforded the trip I wouldn't have bought them in the first place, so any refund would be a bonus. We weren't particularly inconvenienced by getting back late, it was just a bit of a nuisance.

 

[yorkie]

Northern's website often does not have the booked itinerary as an option, I find.

I think it would be a lot easier to forward your booking confirmation email next time, along with the relevant information regarding the delay to the journey and a photo of the tickets attached, but it's up to you.

 

[trainophile]

Northern's website often does not have the booked itinerary as an option, I find.

I think it would be a lot easier to forward your booking confirmation email next time, along with the relevant information regarding the delay to the journey and a photo of the tickets attached, but it's up to you.

Do you mean forward it by post? My printer is a bit of a nuisance to set up (supposed to be wireless but doesn't work unless I scrabble about plugging the cable in - desk clutter doesn't allow for it to be left in ), which is why I thought if I can get away with the online application form I'd go with that.

Thanks for all your advice as always. If I don't get anything back I'll do it your way next time!

 

[yorkie]

I'd recommend email; it won't get lost in the post and most TOCs will send you a reference number almost immediately.

Submitting a claim electronically very promptly does appear to get it 'fast tracked' by several companies, if the relevant information is conveyed concisely and clearly.

 

[trainophile]

Just seen that a nicely worded acknowledgement email (obviously automated but at least it's proof) was sent last night not long after I submitted the claim. I will try to remember to update this thread if I do receive any refund.