Compensation for missed Virgin train caused by tube delays

VincentVega

Yesterday I travelled down to London for the day. I had booked a pair of first class single tickets from Stafford to Euston. The journey down to London was fine - no delays or issues at all.

Coming back my train left at 1950 for Stafford. I was at Richmond, so I caught a tube at 1904 on the District Line which was due to take 28 minutes to get to Victoria. From there, I would catch the Victoria Line northwards to Euston - a journey of 8 minutes. That would have meant arriving with around five to ten minutes to spare, which I would have thought would have been plenty of time.

At Kew, there was a signal failure. We waited around for ages and eventually proceeded very slowly after the driver went through some emergency procedures that allowed him to run the red light. We ran into another red signal a few stops down the line and then encountered further problems, having to wait around for ages. It transpired that someone had pulled one of the emergency levers on a train at Victoria. It took a while for this person to be bundled off the train and by the time 1950 rolled around, I was still on the District Line, waiting. I eventually arrived at Euston at around 2010 and my train was long gone.

I asked a man at the Virgin kiosk what I could do and he directed me to the ticket office, where I explained my predicament. The lady behind the counter told me that there were no further trains going to Stafford. I quipped "So I'll have to walk, then?" which went straight over her head. I asked about trains to Telford and was told that there was indeed such a beast and it would arrive at 0020! I had no alternative but to stump up £38.10 for a ticket.

I have incurred a loss due - IMHO - to London Underground being incompetent and not maintaining their track or having adequate procedures in place to deal with lever pulling on trains. I would like to claim back the £38.10 I was obliged to hand over.

Who should I complain to? If I write to TFL, will they give me compensation for a loss on an entirely different train network (i.e.Virgin)? Am I likely to get my money back?

Any advice would be most welcome.

Oh, and whilst stuck on the train I had to put up with a particularly obnoxious Chelsea fan singing a quite delightful song about a certain Mr Hitler going to Tottenham Hotspur's ground, rounding up a load of Jewish fans and gassing them. Charming.

black-saturn

I travel to London every weekend and this sort of thing regularly happens.

Write them a firm but polite letter telling them exactly what happened and that because of them you had to buy an extra ticket at your own cost. Tell them you were late for something. Send the tickets to them and tell them you would like a refund of the extra ticket you had to buy plus something for the extra inconvenience.

I've done that every time somethings gone wrong and I've always been sent gift vouchers in return.

hjb123

I think that you should do as the previous poster says and try and get money back from the underground however I think you should have left more time to allow for any delays!

M_Thomson

I think the only refund you will get is a refund of the tube fare that you payed. This comes under the tubes customer charter for delays of over 15 minutes.

VincentVega

hjb123 wrote:

I think that you should do as the previous poster says and try and get money back from the underground however I think you should have left more time to allow for any delays!

My journey took one hour and six minutes. It should have taken thirty six. It is *not* reasonable to suppose that there should be that amount of delay to what is a journey that happens every ten minutes, seven days a week on the London Underground. In any event, I find your post offensive, unhelpful and unnecessary.

M_Thomson

VincentVega wrote:

My journey took one hour and six minutes. It should have taken thirty six. It is *not* reasonable to suppose that there should be that amount of delay to what is a journey that happens every ten minutes, seven days a week on the London Underground. In any event, I find your post offensive, unhelpful and unnecessary.

With respect, I think you are being a little over sensitive with regards to that post. When you travel every day on the tube in London like I do you come to expect delays of some some sort nearly every day. The system is is not in good condition. Yes, I understand that you are upset about missing your train, and perhaps the poster above could have phrased it a bit better. I just don't think London Underground will give you a refund of your train ticket. They will probably just give you the tube fare only.

scheming_gypsy

a bit late now but maybe if it happens again.
I know a couple of people who have made long distance train trips with changes and due to delays they've missed the last train. On both occasions they've been to the information office, informed them that due to no fault of their own, but the trains, they've missed their connecting train and are stranded. On both occasions the train company have stumped up taxi fair to get them home.

spotter

All is not yet lost. You may be able to get a refund on the unused Virgin ticket.

Check out section 5.3 on this page: http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/contact_us/passengers_charter/something_wrong.aspx
also section E. Your Refund Rights: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/nrcc/passengers.htm#sece

Flashfly

I'd be careful how you word your claim as they may say you didn't leave sufficent time to make your connections between trains.
The journey times (i.e. time on the tube trains) total 36mins. You also needed to allow for walking between the trains at Victoria and Euston, and waiting for the Victoria Line train to arrive. You only allowed an extra 10mins for all this. Even if the trains had run perfectly I bet you'd still have been running for your train at Euston.

blue_haddock

Sorry Vincent but i'm with HJB - you cut things way too fine and as a result you lost out.

At best you had 10 minutes buffer but Virgin close the doors a couple of minutes prior tolthe train leaving the station so you only really had 8 minutes. Now factor in a few minutes changing at victoria and a few minutes transfering at Euston and you are pretty much bang on time so even if everything ran like clockwork you really didn't stand a chance.

nearlyrich

A colleague and I were a couple of minutes late for a Manchester train a few weeks ago due to traffic hold ups, we were in a cab on what should have been a 10 minute journey to Euston and we had left over 40 minutes to get there. We asked politely at the ticket office if we could be transferred onto the next train and we were without any fuss or extra payment. (we had none transferrable 14 day saver tickets)