Who should delay repay claim(s) be made to?

[gingerheid]

Hello

Would be very grateful if someone can point me in the right direction...

My mum did a return journey on Scotrail > VT East Coast > East Midlands Trains services, using tickets bought from Scotrail.

On the outward journey the East Midlands leg was delayed by 80 mins.

On the return journey the VTEC leg was delayed by 64 mins, causing her to finish the journey 61 mins late.

Who should she make her delay repay claims to?

EMT and VTEC seems logical, but I thought I should check as I've previously claimed a refund for a Great Northern ticket from Virgin WC after some to-ing and froing as to who was responsible for the Anglia ticket machine not working...

 

[najaB]

...EMT and VTEC seems logical...

And also correct.

 

[gingerheid]

Thanks!

 

[yorkie]

Hello

Would be very grateful if someone can point me in the right direction...

My mum did a return journey on Scotrail > VT East Coast > East Midlands Trains services, using tickets bought from Scotrail.

On the outward journey the East Midlands leg was delayed by 80 mins.

On the return journey the VTEC leg was delayed by 64 mins, causing her to finish the journey 61 mins late.

Who should she make her delay repay claims to?

Compensation claims would (almost) always go to the TOC whose train you were (booked to be) on was cancelled/delayed and caused your arrival into your destination to be late, even if subsequent trains were delayed.

These ones sound straightforward, but for complex matters it's best to post the full itinerary if in doubt.

EMT and VTEC seems logical

Based on what you've posted, that's right, EMT and VTEC respectively.

but I thought I should check as I've previously claimed a refund for a Great Northern ticket from Virgin WC after some to-ing and froing as to who was responsible for the Anglia ticket machine not working...

Refunds are a very different matter to compensation.

(Which is why I don't like it when compensation claims are erroneously referred to as "refunds"; it's not because I am being pedantic for the sake of it, but because they are completely different concepts! Some Train Companies, and various sources in the media, often seem to be guilty of this!)

 

[gingerheid]

Thanks! I guess this could get messy if two operators each caused you to be 30mins later...

 

[najaB]

Thanks! I guess this could get messy if two operators each caused you to be 30mins later...

Not really. The claim would still go to the first operator, since their train being late was the reason that you ended up on the second delayed train.

 

[yorkie]

Not really. The claim would still go to the first operator, since their train being late was the reason that you ended up on the second delayed train.

In general, yes.

If the first one caused you to be on a train 30 minute later and that train was subsequently delayed by 30 minutes, making a total delay of 60 minutes, then the first operator would get a claim for a delay of 60 minutes and it's the second operator's lucky day!

That said, if you held a combination of tickets, and suffered a delay on two trains of different operators, it may be better to treat each ticket separately, see Split Tickets and Compensation for an example. But that would be a very rare event indeed.

 

[gingerheid]

I see

 

[gray1404]

It can get very complicated where you have a journey with more then one TOC in which one has the old Passenger's Charter scheme - which can often only adhere to the minimum compensation provisions under the NRCoC - and another using Delay Repay. This is why I am in favour of all TOCs operating universally under Delay Repay.

I had a journey once where it all got complicated. The TOC running the first train which was delayed used the passenger charter system so I had to be delayed 1 hour to claim. I second TOC I connected onto, was also suffering delays and they used Delay Repay.

I arrived at my destination a total of 50 minutes late.

If I'd only had the delay with the first TOC the total delay to my journey would have been 20 minutes. However, the fact I was delayed further (by an additional 30 minutes) with TOC 2 meant that I put in a claim with TOC 2 for a delay of 30 minutes. I had no basis (was not delayed long enough) to make a claim to TOC 1.

They responded by saying they had passed the matter to TOC 1. I replied directly to TOC 2 explaining in further detail why I had claimed to them in the first place and how I had suffered an additional 30 minute delay on their services. They replied with vouches.

(TOC 1 then wrote back to me saying that then had forwarded my complaint to TOC 2. (in essence sent it back to them). I never heard anything else back from either. But I did get the compensation I was entitled too.)

In fact, I got more under Delay Repay then what I would have got under the Passengers Charter. So in a way, it was a blessing it was only delayed by 50 minutes and not an hour. If I'd been delayed by one hour then TOC 1 would have had to have paid out on the whole thing.

I do hope therefore we will see all TOCs operating under delay repay soon so its universal.