Info On Reclaiming High Train Fares

louiseracheal

Hi,
I have looked for a similar page but cant find this question.
My question is, is there a legal loophole/consumer right where by i can claim back £300 for a single trip me and 2 friends did from Kings cross To Leeds.
We missed our train due to Underground, but we left 40 minutes advance (from oxford circus) which i dont consider to be such a long journey. What happened is that we discovered victoria line was closed and had to take an alternate route. Due to severe overcrowding on the underground we could not get there fast enough, some people wouldnt let us squeeze onto the train.We explained this to the kings cross ticket centre, where they said we need to set off 55 mins in advance to get here on time to be liable for a exchange ticket. This is only 15 mins difference and even though he was correct, we did not know that was a condition to be entitled for the refund. We decided to get on the next train as he told us either way we will have to pay hundred pounds each, and after explaining this to the ticket man on the train, it fell on unsympathetic ears and we had to then pay £103 pounds each! even though we had bought tickets already for a train 20 mins earlier, and on an empty train on that. Is there anything i can do, £100 pounds has really hit me hard.
Kind Regards.

dzug1

What time (and day) was the train you actually caught? It probably doesn't help but there may have been a cheaper way of doing it and you might get something if you complain you weren't informed about that.

Can't really see any way round it though. The tickets you had were discounted because they were valid on one specified train which it was your responsibility to catch. It wasn't Nat Ex's fault you didn't catch it.

TfL won't accept responsibility either though they may refund your tube fare if that journey was delayed more than 15 minutes:

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/refunds/tuberefund/default.asp for details

vikingaero

Oxford Circus to KX is perfectly doable by bus in 40 minutes. Also by taxi and by foot.

robt_2

vikingaero wrote: »

Oxford Circus to KX is perfectly doable by bus in 40 minutes. Also by taxi and by foot.

It doesn't matter if it is doable for the OP or not though - they had a responsibility to catch the train, and they didn't.

tehone

Assuming you bought a NX train ticket only from KX to Leeds then no. Its your responsibility to make sure you get to your departure point on time (and presumably you had bought timed Advance tickets). Think of it in the same way as if you bought air tickets and missed check in.

If you'd bought tickets from e.g. Brighton to Leeds then the tube part would have been included as part of your journey adn you would have been fine - **if** you stuck with the minimum recommneded interchange time between stations - from memory its 60 minutes, even you're changing from some where a lot less than 60 minutes journey.

As an aside you were obviously travelling at peak time as £103 is the peak single fare - you could have waited until off peak.

Also £300 for 3 people single fare to Leeds does not add up for advance fare purchase, so your maths is a bit wrong there! I believe that Advance fares start from £28.

dzug1

tehone wrote: »

As an aside you were obviously travelling at peak time as £103 is the peak single fare - you could have waited until off peak.

quote]

Not necessarily peak - £103 is the fare that is paid on the train at any time if you don't have a valid ticket.

Deopending on time of travel, it's possible that OP should have been advised to go to the booking office and buy saver singles at £78 odd each rather than just get on the train - or indeed even advised to wait until after 1900 for the same saver singles

tehone

That was exactly the point I was making!

Along with the point I don't think the OP's first post was accurate with the figures.

louiseracheal

Ok, thanks for your thoughts, it was a sunday late afternoon and not peak time, they were indeed on board fares like dzug1 mentioned and totalled to £309 for the 3 of us, so perhaps its a lost cause me trying to get back. We werent informed of any other way to do it unfortunately at the ticket office, so rushed out to then catch the next train. Many thanks for your help though.

tehone

louiseracheal wrote: »

Ok, thanks for your thoughts, it was a sunday late afternoon and not peak time, they were indeed on board fares like dzug1 mentioned and totalled to £309 for the 3 of us, so perhaps its a lost cause me trying to get back. We werent informed of any other way to do it unfortunately at the ticket office, so rushed out to then catch the next train. Many thanks for your help though.

But if you were in the ticket office why didn't you buy the tickets in there - you could possibly complain that the ticket office misinformed you that you had to buy tickets on the train.

As it was Sunday afternoon [no peak times at all], you definitely could have got much cheaper tickets just by buying in the ticket office.