Delay repay train help!

sophie131

Hiya! This might go on a bit so sorry!
Firstly, don't think of me as someone who wants to get every penny I can off a company, I don't do this often (as you can tell by my querying how to work things out!).
Ok, last week I was getting a train back from London to my home town. First train was cancelled, second train was cancelled, third train delayed by 25 minutes - after which I didn't hang about and went back to my friends. If I had've waited, there would've been an hours worth of passenger backlog to get on the next train and the train after so I wouldn't have been able to get on ( I have severe claustraphobia and have to plan train times carefully so i'm not in there like a sardine, I have been known to go blind and deaf then proceed to pass out on trains like that before and it's scary when it happens, especially as I travel alone!!)
So, I was looking on the first Capital Connect Site today and found out you can claim back some money for delayed trains, would I be able to do this? If I can, should I put the delayed time that the train actually was (around 50 minutes IF the next one had of come on time) or put 60 mins + because the next train would've been unboardable for around 1/2 the people there?
It also asks for a copy of the ticket, I only have the outward journey one though as the machine ate my return ticket, but it still says return on it so would they accept it as proof?
Can you tell I don't do this often?!
Thanks for any help!!

sarah_elton

I really sympathise with the claustrophobia. I'm the same. I commute from Essex into Liverpool Street on the mainline. Once, Liverpool Street was closed so the whole of Essex was getting off at Stratford. After 20 minutes in a huge mob trying to get to the Underground, I started panicking, couldn't move anywere, so started hyperventilating and a TFL guy had to rescue me and pull me out.

I use National Express East Anglia delay repay forms. You can claim for a delay of more than 30 mins. On our forms, you have to fill in the train departure time, and delay length in minutes.

For cancelled trains, I fill in the departure time of the train I was originally going to get. Then, I look at when I arrive compared to when I should have, and work out number of mins.

Put down 60+ mins - if they query it (I guarantee they won't), just say you couldn't get on the first one that came in. Happens all the time.

With mine, you have to fill in the ticket number (printed on the ticket). You don't have to send it off.