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Delay - who to claim from?

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cookie365

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Hello, I've been caught up in today's midlands flooding fun and games.

I bought my ticket from Southern.

Route was Thameslink - Tube - Virgin - Northern.

The Thameslink train was delayed a few minutes but made no difference to my connection.

The main delay was on a Virgin train that arrived 56 minutes late.

The final connection was a Northern train that was timetabled exactly an hour after my original one, that was about 9 minutes late, so overall I was about 69 minutes late.

Who should I claim from? Is it Virgin because their leg was the major delay, even though I didn't buy the tickets from them?

Thanks :)
 
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crehld

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If Virgin's delay caused the substantive delay (because the delay there caused you to miss your originally planned Northern connection), claim from them. Don't use the online delay repay form as it won't recognize non-virgin served stations (which I'm guessing your origin and destination are) - email them instead with a scan or photo of your ticket.
 
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cookie365

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Thank you both. And you're right crehld - origin station is Southern run, destination is Northern run.
 

Starmill

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Actually I had a similar case like this where I was told on here to claim from the opertator that had caused the inconsequential delay rather than the one that actually delayed my journey just because it came first.
 

najaB

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Actually I had a similar case like this where I was told on here to claim from the opertator that had caused the inconsequential delay rather than the one that actually delayed my journey just because it came first.
If (for example) I had 20 minutes to make a connection and the first train was 5 minutes late wouldn't claim against the first operator as they would likely reject it.
 

Starmill

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If (for example) I had 20 minutes to make a connection and the first train was 5 minutes late wouldn't claim against the first operator as they would likely reject it.

In my scenario it was VT who caused the inconsequential delay. XC caused the delay over 30 minutes but they rejected the claim and VT paid for it.

There was a thread at the time.
 

yorkie

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In this case, as the booked Virgin Train was caught from Euston, and it was that train that caused the delay, you claim off Virgin.

Simply provide them with your booked itinerary and state that their train arrived at <wherever> 56 minutes late and your final arrival at your destination was 69 minutes late.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Thank you both. And you're right crehld - origin station is Southern run.
operated by GTR, technically ;) Not that it matters!
 

Starmill

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I've had a look for the thread but can't find it. Probably best because loads of people accused me of falsifying claims or playing this system anyway (which is absolute nonsense). I was definitely told that I had done it wrong because I claimed from the second part of my journey where the more substantive delay had occurred, and there was a very partonising poster who told me that I should have claimed only once and from the first TOC who delayed me - even if only by 1 minute. Strict reading of the Delay Repay schemes seems to back this idea up.
 

najaB

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I've had a look for the thread but can't find it ... there was a very partonising poster who told me that I should have claimed only once and from the first TOC who delayed me - even if only by 1 minute. Strict reading of the Delay Repay schemes seems to back this idea up.
I vaguely remember the thread, but not the details. My take on it is that in the OP's case the delay to the first train didn't cause them to be late - they were still able to make the booked departure time of the second train, so the first TOC didn't contribute to the overall delay in arrival at their destination. It wouldn't make sense for them to have to pay out.
 

yorkie

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I've had a look for the thread but can't find it. Probably best because loads of people accused me of falsifying claims or playing this system anyway (which is absolute nonsense). I was definitely told that I had done it wrong because I claimed from the second part of my journey where the more substantive delay had occurred, and there was a very partonising poster who told me that I should have claimed only once and from the first TOC who delayed me - even if only by 1 minute. Strict reading of the Delay Repay schemes seems to back this idea up.
Without knowing the details I can't comment.

As for the original post in this thread, I'd really want to know the origin, destination etc but I felt there was just about enough other info to say with confidence in this case that the claim would be from Virgin.

Any other claim would have to be considered on its own merits.
 

crehld

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It doesn't matter at all - for Delay Repay or Passenger Chaarter compensation what matters is which TOC operates the train.

But the origin and destination do matter for how you access particular TOCs' delay repay claims process. So it is relevant to the case at hand, hence why I asked.

In the case of Virgin, if your origin and or destination are not served by Virgin, the online form will refuse to accept your claim unless you amend it to only cover the Virgin Trains leg of your journey, in which case the good folk (who I suspect aim for swift resolution over accurate response) at Virgin will only calculate the delay for their leg of the journey, not the whole journey. In the OP's case the delay to the Virgin leg was under 1 hour, despite their journey being delayed by over an hour. So Virgin will pay out the incorrect amount and the OP will have to write back and request the claim is reconsidered in light of the actual journey made and delay incurred.

This is why I suggested to email Virgin instead to ensure the correct amount is paid first time round and any unnecessary additional contact, which would only result in wasted time for the OP and Virgin staff, is avoided.

Of course designing an adequate delay repay form which accounts for the fact that delays on one TOC's services do not only affect journeys restricted to that same TOC would be the easy fix to the problem. I have raised the issue with Virgin no less than three times who have thanked me for my "valuable feedback" and been promised an "immediate fix", which, it turns out, has not been so immediate.
 

Haywain

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I'm aware of how DR works, but my comments were specifically about who operates the station having no relevance to the claim. It was a direct answer to a question from the OP, which I don't think was in any way unclear as it clearly followed your previous advice about not using the online form so that the correct origin and destination could be given.
 

najaB

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I'm aware of how DR works, but my comments were specifically about who operates the station having no relevance to the claim.
In this particular case it does - but only in a roundabout way. Because Virgin doesn't manage or operate to the OP's destination station, it won't appear on their online Delay Repay form. Hence the suggestion to email them directly.
 

Haywain

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In this particular case it does - but only in a roundabout way. Because Virgin doesn't manage or operate to the OP's destination station, it won't appear on their online Delay Repay form. Hence the suggestion to email them directly.
Why did you choose not to quote the part of my post that addressed that?
 
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