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Newbie Commuter renewal question

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dabe1971

New Member
Joined
6 Jun 2018
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3
Hi all,

Next week I complete my first year as a train commuter after my employer relocated from Basingstoke to Reading. I bought a BSK-RDG Annual season ticket from Basingstoke which was a South West Trains operated station at the time, however the actual train I use is operated by GWR.

I've just renewed my ticket this evening at Basingstoke and it's been discounted due to PPM from £1584 down 10% to £1425 and I paid on my card accordingly. But as I was handed my new ticket and receipt I was also given a SWT branded Season Ticket Refund Claim form and told to "fill that out and come back when your old ticket has expired - not before - for further compensation...."

I assume this is for claiming void days. Fine.

But the form asks for the number of days service not available - how do I know ? I never kept a note as I understood the rail companies keep their own records and for annual ST holders they refund or extend the ticket at renewal ? This wasn't the case tonight as the new ticket just covers another 365 days from the old one's expiry.

I know I should probably have asked but the queue was building and I didn't want to hold the single window up at peak.

I do know we had one day declared 'void' when we had snow earlier in 2018 but to confuse the issue further, back when Waterloo was closed for the refurb work last summer I was told by a SWT employee that ALL SWT ST holders would also get those 10 days compensated at renewal even though we didn't travel into Waterloo itself. The cited reason was we had extra commuters on our service into Reading as they tried to reach London via Reading & Paddington.

But add into the mix that we had a franchise change from SWT to South West Railways in August smack bang in the middle of the closure and I've subsequently been told by THEIR staff that because we don't travel into Waterloo we aren't now entitled to those 10 days after all !?

So I'm as confused as hell exactly what I'm supposed to be able to claim for on this form that the ticket office staff gave me without prompting ! I've found a performance chart for SWR here period-02-29-april-to-26-may-2018.pdf but the only mention of Reading is via Ascot into Waterloo which isn't a route I use.

I can find no such equivalent on GWR's site and besides, I'm a SWR (ex-SWT) customer so presumably they used their PPM figure when they discounted my renewal ticket this evening not GWR's.

It's crazy to offer me a form and not have available just what I'm supposed to be claiming for. They can't expect ST holders to remember how many days over the last 365 were declared void can they ?

I did ask SWR via a Twitter DM but they don't seem to have a clue either !

"Good evening, I'm unsure which part of the compensation form you're referring to, and I'm unable to provide a number of delays in a period as there are numerous services running different routes. I would imagine you've been given a form to preemptively fill out to receive a discount on your next season ticket based on SWR's achieved Public Performance Measure (PPM). ^NW"

It can't be the PPM discount as I've already had that calculated when I paid for my ST tonight. He handed me the separate claim for as he gave me my ticket !

I'm so confused ! Thanks for any help from the experienced community ! Is it always this hard !?
 
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wibble

Member
Joined
23 Jun 2010
Messages
615
the amount of Void Days you can claim will be on this page http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/121354.aspx#oldCharter, depending on the date you renewed your season ticket. Basingstoke - Reading falls under GWR's "London Thames Valley" route so it's 3 Void Days due. The ticket office will be able to enter that figure for you.

Your season ticket won't get any of the SWT Void Days as the journey had nothing to do with SWT.
 

bb21

Emeritus Moderator
Joined
4 Feb 2010
Messages
24,151
As wibble mentioned, you are not eligible for SWR's void days as Reading - Basingstoke falls within a GWR service group. You are however eligible for GWR's void days in the relevant service group.

The next set of results are out on Sunday 1st July 2018. Probably best waiting until then before claiming your void day refunds, as the full set of results for the period starting 27th May 2018 will not be declared until then. These do not expire so you can claim them at any time.

Passenger's Charter performance figure has nothing to do with PPM btw. They are completely different beasts and calculated separately.
 

dabe1971

New Member
Joined
6 Jun 2018
Messages
3
Cheers both. I finally got SWR to give me the link you supplied Wibble last night but thanks for the further confirmation.

The Waterloo business did strike me as odd at the time but as I said, it came from a SWT station team member in Basingstoke complete with the explanation as to why. I'd only been commuting a month at that point so I had no reason to doubt them. And thanks for the tip about the new results. I don't think there will be any more as I can't recall any major disruptions, just overcrowding ! I'm not even sure why the two days in July were declared as void but I do know the one this year was due to the snow we had.

Thanks all for clearing that up.
 
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