Are rail companies allowed to deny a refund for any reason if a train is cancelled?

jomish

I recently wanted to travel from Milton Keynes - London and paid extra to use Virgin. My train was cancelled so I took my ticket to the ticket office (London Midland station) for an immediate refund following your advice but they refused as I bought it from thetrainline.com. I also got refused by Virgin Trains on the phone as they said I could travel on another train. The only way I seem to be able to get a refund is by paying an admin charge by thetrainline.com. Is this correct? The train ticket does not specifically say Virgin though I do have a reservation for the Virgin train and the cost reflects travel on Virgin. Any advice would be much appreciated!

AirlieBird

If you decided not to travel as a result of your train being cancelled then, yes, the ticket office should have provided you with an immediate refund. If the train runs, but you decide not to travel then the ticket should be returned to the point of sale for a refund.

The relevant part of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage states

26. Refunds on tickets which have not been used
If you decide not to use a ticket (other than a Season Ticket - see Condition 36) to
make all or part of your intended journey, then:
(a) if the train you intended to use is cancelled, delayed or your reservation will
not be honoured, you decide not to travel and at that time you return the
unused ticket to any ticket office, the Train Company responsible for that
ticket office will, if it is in a position to do so, give you an immediate full
refund as shown in Condition 27;
(b) if paragraph (a) does not apply and the ticket has been bought from a Train
Company’s ticket office (or a self-service machine) and you return your ticket
at any Train Company’s ticket office no later than 28 days after the expiry of
the ticket’s validity, you will receive a refund (subject to the notes below); or
(c) if paragraph (a) does not apply, the ticket has been bought from a Train
Company’s telesales office or a Train Company’s internet website and you
return the ticket to an address notified by that Train Company no later than
28 days after the expiry of the ticket’s validity, you will receive a refund
(subject to the notes below); or
(d) if paragraph (a) does not apply and the ticket has been bought from a travel
agent, if you return the ticket to that agent no later than 28 days after the
expiry of the ticket’s validity, you will receive a refund (subject to the notes
below).

jonesMUFCforever

I think the T&C of issue when you decided to buy via Trainline overides the above terms in particular '' the Train Company responsible for that
ticket office will, if it is in a position to do so,'' - refund but if it is not a direct agent of Trainline then they would not be able to refund.
If you had bought the ticket from the ticket office then yes they would have made the refund.

dzug1

Are you sure you paid extra to use Virgin? Their fares are LESS than LM from MK to London.

But that's an aside - you should be able to get a refund from the trainline as that's where you bought it from.

You can avoid their fee BTW if you buy from a train company website.

gner_ex

jomish wrote: »

I recently wanted to travel from Milton Keynes - London and paid extra to use Virgin. My train was cancelled so I took my ticket to the ticket office (London Midland station) for an immediate refund following your advice but they refused as I bought it from thetrainline.com.

I find it hard to see how a refund could be justified as trains from MKC to Euston are so frequent. You should have got on the next train (depending what ticket you had and whether there was an easement - if you had a £20.00 cheap day return this is valid on any operator) and you would have probably been entitled to delay repay compensation anyway due to this train arriving at Euston later.

Can't understand why anyone would want to "pay extra to use" the vomit-enducing Virgin Pendolino though - but that is of course your choice. Desiro every time here.