Refund for non-completion of rail journey

[strawbrick]

Good afternoon.
We recently tried to travel from St Albans to Brighton for a day by the sea.
Our train was terminated at London Bridge because of a fatality near Gatwick.
As neither another railway route nor a replacement bus was offered, we decided to spend our time at Canary Wharf instead of Brighton and then went back to London Bridge in the late afternoon. There were still problems, with several St Albans trains being cancelled just before they were due to arrive!
I gone on to the Thameslink delay repay web site, but that asks how long the outbound delay was, but as we never "arrived" I am struggling to answer. I also have a problem with the return journey as we were never in Brighton to start the journey and the trains were not running.
The delay repay web site has an option to claim for an aborted journey but it would seem that this is only applicable where the journey was cancelled before we started.
Any suggestions on how to proceed would be most welcome.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Probably one for customer services.

I did actually do something like this about a month ago, I went to the booking office at my (new) destination and they were willing to "non-issue" the original ticket and issue a replacement one for the shorter journey I actually made (a cancellation made the onward journey I had planned not viable time-wise).

Claiming it as an abandoned journey felt wrong, as I still made a journey and spent several hours at the destination, I didn't immediately go home - it was just not the journey originally planned.

 

[Haywain]

Good afternoon.
We recently tried to travel from St Albans to Brighton for a day by the sea.
Our train was terminated at London Bridge because of a fatality near Gatwick.
As neither another railway route nor a replacement bus was offered, we decided to spend our time at Canary Wharf instead of Brighton and then went back to London Bridge in the late afternoon. There were still problems, with several St Albans trains being cancelled just before they were due to arrive!
I gone on to the Thameslink delay repay web site, but that asks how long the outbound delay was, but as we never "arrived" I am struggling to answer. I also have a problem with the return journey as we were never in Brighton to start the journey and the trains were not running.
The delay repay web site has an option to claim for an aborted journey but it would seem that this is only applicable where the journey was cancelled before we started.
Any suggestions on how to proceed would be most welcome.

Did you buy tickets online or at the station? As you have abandoned your journey, you are entitled to a full refund which should come from the retailer.

 

[yorksrob]

I tried customer services when I was stranded at Leeds and got no joy.

 

[ainsworth74]

As @Haywain says. You need to go back to your retailer and submit a claim for a refund on the basis of an abandoned journey. That may be an email to customer services, it will depend on the retailers arrangements. Condition 30.1 of the National Rail Conditions of Travel refers:

30. Your Right to a Refund If Your Train Is Disrupted and You Choose Not to Travel

30.1 Conditions 30.1 –30.4 cover all Tickets other than Season Tickets, and also apply if you have begun your journey but are unable to complete it due to a delay to, or cancellation of, your service. In such cases, you are permitted to return to your point of origin and still get a refund. You may return an unused Ticket to the original retailer or Train Company from whom it was purchased, where you will be given a full refund with no administration fee charged, if you decide not to travel because the train you intended to use is:
• cancelled, or
• delayed, or
• rescheduled from that in Published Timetable of the Day after you have purchased a Ticket or Tickets, or
• your reservation will not be honoured

Your Rights and Obligations as a Passenger | National Rail

When you buy a train ticket to travel on the rail network, you enter into an agreement with the train companies. Find out about your rights and obligations as a passenger, and how to get more information.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is it really an abandoned journey if you don't return to the point of origin reasonably promptly rather than having a day out in a different location? I think it's questionable. Is it defined anywhere?

 

[Haywain]

Is it really an abandoned journey if you don't return to the point of origin reasonably promptly rather than having a day out in a different location? I think it's questionable. Is it defined anywhere?

Yes, it is an abandoned journey. It probably isn't defined anywhere. But is having a day out at somewhere en route any different to waiting arounf to see if things improve? I don't think so.

 

[Adam Williams]

Is it really an abandoned journey if you don't return to the point of origin reasonably promptly

Where is the requirement for the passenger to return to the point of origin documented? The NRCoT says you can go back to your origin (my interpretation being that you can do so without cost if you need to give up on your journey) but not that you have to.

 

[Watershed]

Where is the requirement for the passenger to return to the point of origin documented? The NRCoT says you can go back to your origin (my interpretation being that you can do so without cost if you need to give up on your journey) but not that you have to.

Indeed, and this also (for once!) mirrors the entitlement under Article 16 of the PRO, which was likely to have been engaged here given the scale of the disruption:

reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket, under the conditions by which it was paid, for the part or parts of his or her journey not made and for the part or parts already made if the journey is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger’s original travel plan, together with, when relevant, a return service to the first point of departure at the earliest opportunity

The fact that the right to travel back to the point of departure is a right which applies 'when relevant' makes clear that it is in the passenger's gift to decide whether or not to avail of this right. Failing to do so doesn't repudiate the right to a refund.

The original travel plans involved a day by the seaside. The travel actually undertaken - to central London - therefore clearly didn't serve any purpose in relation to this plan, and so a full refund is due from the retailer.

As others have said, the OP would have been waiting around in London regardless, so the fact that they managed to have some benefit from this also doesn't impact the refund entitlement - although clearly, it's not something I would be exactly shouting about when applying for the refund.

Best to keep things as simple as possible - there was disruption, and I abandoned the journey. That makes it more likely that a refund will be granted without needing to go back and forth a million times with the retailer.