The horrible weather of the last few days has brought train delays and cancellations back in to focus for travellers, and reminded me to tell you about the fact that you can get some, if not all, of the money that you spend on train travel back from the train operators if your journey is delayed.
The train I was on a couple of weeks ago was 45 minutes late getting to where I wanted to go. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault. There was an issue with an animal on a track that caused one train to be late and that then caused a bit of a back up which meant that several trains were diverted and we all ended up running late.
These things happen and fortunately I wasn’t on a strict deadline to get where I was going and so I was quite relaxed about it all. I was even more relaxed when I discovered that the delay meant that I would be entitled to 50% of the cost of my fare back under the Delay Repay scheme that the train company operated.
Coincidentally when I got home a read a press release suggesting that there is something like £100m floating around unclaimed in this scheme because travellers think it’s too difficult to claim.
It’s really not! It’s just a case of going online and filling in a short form, uploading a copy of your ticket and sending it off to the company concerned. In fact in many cases it’s a lot easier than that because it happens automatically if you have purchased certain ticket types and the rail companies know who you are and when you travelled.
The amount that you can claim back depends on how late your train is running and which operator you are using but it is likely to be anywhere between 25% and 100% of you total ticket price. All trains are monitored and so there should be no debate about the late running, you just need to provide details of the service you were on and the company will do the rest. You can, depending on the train operator concerned, get your money back as vouchers to be used for future travel or as cash, either paid directly into your account of by cheque.
So if your train is delayed get online as soon as you get home and check whether you’re entitled to a refund. It’s your money after all!
