Who benefits from the Delay Repay scheme? Customers or train operators?

[HouseOfCommons]

We thought you might be interested in a recent Insight from the House of Commons Library on the Delay Repay compensation scheme.

Under the scheme, a passenger is entitled to 50% of the cost of a single fare if a train is delayed by more than 30 minutes, irrespective of the cause of the delay.

According to the Library's research, many rail passengers, namely season ticket holders, have been left several hundred pounds worse off under the Delay Repay passenger compensation regime, while some train operators might also be financially better off than they were under the old Passenger’s Charter regime.

This graph shows the compensation paid out by South West Trains (under the Passenger’s Charter until August 2017) compared to Southeastern (under Delay Repay since July 2011) in the years leading up to 2017/18. It compares the total amount of compensation paid out up to 2017/18 for South West Trains and Southeastern, based on the latest compensation data published by the Department for Transport.

The Insight explains the difference between Delay Repay and its predecessor, the Passenger’s Charter scheme, and looks at how much compensation passengers get depending on the type of ticket they own.

For further reading, have a look at the Rail passenger rights, compensation and complaints Library Briefing published last month.

 

[swt_passenger]

I remember quite a few years ago there was an analysis of delay repay somewhere online that suggested that a TOC that brought it in was probably going to be better off with individual claims, compared to paying out charter discounts to every season ticket holder, whether delayed or not. It may have been an FOI or something. I suspect it was assumed some people might not bother claiming.

Of course we now have Delay Repay for 15 mins on some TOCs.

I think the discussion at the time couldn’t quite see why SWT were not trying to bring it in mid franchise, as they were one of the last to renew before Delay Repay became normal? It also seems strange that GWR are still not doing it for long seasons. Perhaps some TOCs have a different theory about the likely payments?

 

[Starmill]

A fascinating question to be honest. There have been some very interesting cases of winners and losers as the transition has been made from the old Charter Compensation schemes to new 'Delay Repay' schemes.

One small technical point to note is that the rates of compensation are not the same at every train operator. Even between South Western Railway and Southeastern there are some marked differences that may impact on the Libarary's analysis. For example, at South Western Railway, passengers are entitled to compensation for delays after just 15 minutes, but not on Southeastern. A season ticket holder travelling with Southeastern who is delayed by more than two hours will also receive double the compensation that one on South Western Railway will.

 

[bb21]

I sincerely hope this is not prelude to changes being considered yet again. Finally passengers were starting to have something remotely resembling consistency until the government deciding on a new 15-minute Delay Repay scheme variation in order to bribe people's attention away from their incompetent handling of the whole Thameslink fiasco ruined it again.

Now we have an easy-to-understand clear idea forward with Delay Repay 15. Try sticking with it to make it easier for the passengers to understand would be the best thing the government can do.

Who wins from Delay Repay is irrelevant, and dare I say everyone does having seen (and handled) it from all angles. Part of the reason many find the system difficult to navigate around is its complexity. Consistency is key to making it more accessible for everyone.

 

[swt_passenger]

Yes, consistency must be the thing, and one of the most amazingly inconsistent features of either form of compensation must have to be GWR operating delay compensation rules based on three different schemes operated by the 3 former TOCs that were combined in ???? (Can’t remember!)

 

[bb21]

According to the Library's research, many rail passengers, namely season ticket holders, have been left several hundred pounds worse off under the Delay Repay passenger compensation regime, while some train operators might also be financially better off than they were under the old Passenger’s Charter regime.

The research seems to forget that under Passenger's Charter, many people were compensated despite not experiencing much disruptipn at all, and many others were not compensated at all despite consistently experiencing poor performance on selected routes. In that respect, Delay Repay is massively fairer.

The total compensation paid is neither here nor there and does not tell you anything. If it is felt that an issue exists surrounding passengers' willingness to spend time claiming small amounts due, the Department should take the lead in devising an easy-to-claim process which can be implemented consistently by all franchisees, although not being rude, from my experience of dealing with the Department, there is more chance of pigs flying than that happening.

 

[bb21]

Yes, consistency must be the thing, and one of the most amazingly inconsistent features of either form of compensation must have to be GWR operating delay compensation rules based on three different schemes operated by the 3 former TOCs that were combined in ???? (Can’t remember!)

2006 when the three franchise merged I think.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It wouldn't be beyond the wit of man, given that most commuters use the same trains every day, to have a scheme whereby you can register those trains, and are just asked to confirm you were on them that way before an automatic claim being processed. You could of course log on and indicate you'd used another train if that was delayed.

I do agree it should be a consistent national scheme across all TOCs, and I increasingly think there should be an independent clearing house administering it.

 

[AlterEgo]

These are very interesting figures - thank you for providing them @HouseOfCommons.

I was always suspicious that some TOCs seemed to acquiesce to Delay Repay when it meant that season ticket charter compensation would fall by the wayside. I never understood why the two schemes couldn't sit together in parallel.

 

[bb21]

Having now got a little more time, I will just make the following observations regarding this paper although there is probably more I could comment on if I don't have an early start tomorrow.

Clearly the author took the most advantageous example in comparing these specific periods between these two operators. Those in the know will be able to tell in an instant that SWT's figures for the period in question were abnormally high while SET's were relatively low for reasons I won't go into details about due to commercial confidentiality. For example, the 10 void days across board SWT offered just before the end of the franchise during Waterloo upgrade works would have skewed the figures far more than many Passenger's Charter schemes ever could manage throughout their existence. Of course there is nothing wrong with using graphs selectively in itself to illustrate a point, however it is worthy of note that the inherent difference between the systems are actually far smaller than illustrated in the chosen graph.

While the alignment between PPM and Passenger's Charter metrics is fairly good, the alignment between PPM and Delay Repay is a dangerous one. I don't have SET's figures to hand right now, however especially when considering services which are significantly late (30+), there is much more volatility and the correlation becomes much weaker in general. Each operator will also have differing performance profiles when it gets to that tail end of the curve (significantly late services) due to vastly different service recovery policies and practice. Delay Repay also introduces another layer of complication in that these are now station specific, whereas PPM (therefore Charter) is not. In all, it is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion (in a highly relevant professional capacity) to draw any meaningful conclusion through linking that and compensation rates.

In areas with congested networks, due to declining performance levels (due in part to: increasing passenger numbers, increasing unreliability of infrastructure stretched to the limit, increasing number of services, increasing number of incidents, increasing occurrences of severe weather, etc), Delay Repay understandably offers less compensation overall due, as the author correctly pointed out, to the differing levels of threshold: 5 minutes for PPM/Charter and 30 minutes for Delay Repay. Delay Repay was never designed as a system that is more generous. (I am actually rather surprised that a government-supported paper believed its own spin.) What it was designed to do however was to be more reflective of a customer's journey experience, which it clearly does well. The issue with sustained periods of poor performance was supposed to be catered for via additional ad hoc schemes on top of standard Delay Repay arrangements, however I am of the understanding that the specification of these additional arrangements is rather poor, either through oversight or failings by the Department in a regulatory and contractual capacity.

The advantage offered to both passengers and operators by Delay Repay extends far beyond monetary values of compensation. If a £ figure were the sole criteria, the scheme would never have taken off in the first place as that was always a foregone conclusion and one does not need a paper to tell the ministers that. Anyone who ever worked in a TOC performance team across the transition from Charter to Delay Repay would have been able to tell you that. As I had mentioned before, the simplicity, clarity, and consistency, both to understand and administer, are all strengths of the Delay Repay scheme.

Delay Repay awareness is still rather poor, but that is not a weakness of the system itself. Both the government and the operators can probably do more to increase awareness of these arrangements, and I believe automatic Delay Repay was designed in part to address this issue. As I also already mentioned, a possible lack of motivation for passengers to claim low value compensation can be mitigated against effectively if the will were there within the government. If you then take out the value of those people who previously received compensation but never really experienced sustained levels of poor performance, the actual difference between the two systems would be much smaller than the paper made out to be.

I bring this back to my original point upthread that I hope this is not prelude to government ministers wanting to try another new idea while using passengers as guinea pigs. Delay Repay may not be perfect and there are various different ways it can probably be improved further, but it has the advantage of being simple to understand and simple to administer, I hope there is no plan to mess with it yet again.

I don't mean to have a go but I do think a bit more context would be useful to the readers. Other than those points I mentioned, the paper itself is very comprehensive and is fairly well written.

 

[ComUtoR]

What I find with Southeastern is that they run a heavy Metro service. Where you have a relatively short journey time, it is very very difficult to actually be delayed by 30 minutes.

 

[ASharpe]

It would have been nice if the author of the paper didn't make the assumption that entitlement to Delay Repay depends solely on the TOC. In West Yorkshire many passengers buy tickets though the PTE Metro and Northen and Metro try to exclude any delay compensation from Metro ticket holders.

I have had success in getting delay compensation after going through Transport Focus but I know many passengers are refused compensation they are contractually entitled to and I would like to see the full delay repay offer extended to PTE ticket holders.

 

[AlterEgo]

What I find with Southeastern is that they run a heavy Metro service. Where you have a relatively short journey time, it is very very difficult to actually be delayed by 30 minutes.

True, but it's very easy to misconnect going through London and hence become liable.

 

[Starmill]

It wouldn't be beyond the wit of man, given that most commuters use the same trains every day, to have a scheme whereby you can register those trains, and are just asked to confirm you were on them that way before an automatic claim being processed.

Northern have been doing basically this for quite some time.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Northern have been doing basically this for quite some time.

For season tickets? I note they do offer automatic Delay Repay on Advances as VT do. Which can of course mean a convenient refund on an Advance you didn't use

 

[Framps]

Just to add my two cents on this as a regular user of both South West Trains and it’s successor Southwestern, I believe the figures are only so high because South West used to automatically deduct the compensation due from the cost of the next season ticket.

I have no idea how they worked this out but I regularly would turn up to buy my £100 monthly ticket from Guildford to Woking, and be charged varying amounts, often around £90, but once in a particularly delay-ridden month, down to £50.

When one month, there was no deduction on the price of the ticket, I asked why. I was told it was because South West Trains was the only franchise that operated their compensation scheme in this way, but that had now ended.

I can’t recall whether this was because of a policy change, or due to the change of operator to Southwestern, but since then I have had to individually claim like everyone else.

 

[swt_passenger]

Just to add my two cents on this as a regular user of both South West Trains and it’s successor Southwestern, I believe the figures are only so high because South West used to automatically deduct the compensation due from the cost of the next season ticket.

I have no idea how they worked this out but I regularly would turn up to buy my £100 monthly ticket from Guildford to Woking, and be charged varying amounts, often around £90, but once in a particularly delay-ridden month, down to £50.

When one month, there was no deduction on the price of the ticket, I asked why. I was told it was because South West Trains was the only franchise that operated their compensation scheme in this way, but that had now ended.

I can’t recall whether this was because of a policy change, or due to the change of operator to Southwestern, but since then I have had to individually claim like everyone else.

Welcome to the forums.

Yes it was a DfT policy change. Long period Season ticket holders never had to claim for specific journeys under SWT, effectively they averaged performance (in SWT’s case there were about 10 separate service groups) over a rolling 12 month period, and if your particular route failed performance and/or reliability targets then they knocked a percentage off at renewal. There were also void days, which were when the entire service was wrecked on a particular day. All ticket types require individual claims on SWR now.

Time wise, SWT commenced its last new franchise just before delay repay became the new standard applied in subsequent franchises, and therefore gradually became one of the last on the old “passenger charter” compensation scheme for seasons.

I think GWR also took a long time to change. However for some unknown reason GWR still uses charter discounts for long seasons even now...

 

[plugwash]

It seems to me that delay repay is highly biased towards longer distance travellers, because the threshold is based on the absoloute delay but the compensation is based on the price of the ticket.

 

[37047]

It seems to me that delay repay is highly biased towards longer distance travellers, because the threshold is based on the absoloute delay but the compensation is based on the price of the ticket.

Good point - this year, I've had more in delay repay back from a single long trip (Inverness - King's Lynn) returning from a holiday than in the past 10 months of my current annual season ticket, despite cumulatively far more hours of delay and far more inconvenience.

 

[TurbostarFan]

For season tickets? I note they do offer automatic Delay Repay on Advances as VT do. Which can of course mean a convenient refund on an Advance you didn't use

But you can get a refund on an Advance you didn't use if your train was delayed or cancelled right?