Compensation for missed Virgin train caused by tube delays

enevel

VincentVega,

The Tube journey you talk about is one I make regularly, and I would always allow at least an hour for it. You quote timings of 28 mins for Richmond to Victoria and 8 mins for Victoria to Euston - it sounds like these are the point-to-point journey tiemes as taken from the Transport for London website.

This won't help now but, for future reference, when using the Tube you cannot just cobble together two point-to-point times and come up with a full journey time:

1. You can wait for a District Line train at Richmond for anything upto ten minutes.
2. The change from the District Line to the Victoria Line at Euston involves a walk of about five minutes.
3. You can also wait for anything upto eight minutes for a Victoria Line train at Euston.
4. The change from the Victoria Line to the National Rail platforms at Euston takes at least five minutes.
5. As has already been mentioned Virgin Trains, in common with other National Rail operators, closes train doors a good minute before departure from Euston.

That's 29 minutes of slack you have to account for on this journey already.

There is also the additional issue of the amount of time Tube travellers have to allow before a London Underground service is considered to be 'late'. It may surprise you but, as far as the customer service and compensation regime is concerned, a train that is delayed for a minute or two is not actually 'late'. On National Rail services, trains are not 'late' unless they arrive at their final destination five or ten minutes (depending on the operator) after their timetabled arrival time. (And if your train is only five or ten mins late you STILL won't get compensation - for this it needs to be anything from 20 mins to an hour late, again depending on the operator).

On the London Underground, a tube service is not 'late' until you have been delayed for 15 minutes. On a two leg journey, like yours from Richmond to Euston, you should really allow 30 minutes for late trains.

So that's 36 mins for the journey, 29 mins for changes, and 30 minutes for delays. Richmond to Euston in 1hr 36. The 1hr 06mins you quote is, I would suspect, about as quick as its possible to do it on the average day.

On the subject of what compensation you are entitled to - London Underground Ltd will refund you for the cost of your tube ticket if you were more than 15 mins late. That is all you are legally entitled to. If you ask neicely, they may think about making an ex gratia payment in respect of your Virgin Trains losses. But they don't have to pay a penny towards this, and I have never heard of them doing this (notwithstanding the poster above who sayts they have).

You say you had 'a pair of first class single tickets'. My guess is that these were Virgin Value fares (as a pair of non-value first class single tickets fron stafford to London woulnd't leave you with much change from £220. No refunds are available on Virgin Value fares - regardless of whether you used the ticket or not.

If I were you, I too would be very frustrated. But, unfortunately, there is little you can do. To be honest, £38.10 out of pocket is less than I would expect. Miss a flight because of a mis-calculation on Tube times and it'll cost you upwards of £250. To be honest, mass transit systems in pretty much all European cities work this way (although most don't compensae you at all).

Need_More_Money_2

Sorry, but I think leaving only 5 to 10 minutes spare on such a journey to catch a long distance train is not enough. Would you have left only that time to catch a flight?
Delays happen, it doesn't mean that London Underground are incompetent. If the trains had been delayed by only 5 or 10 mins you would've missed your train. I don't think a delay of 5 or 10 minutes is really unacceptable given the number of things that can happen. Expecting trains to arrive at exactly the minute timetabled is. in my opinion, unreasonable

hjb123

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.

Well I dont see my post offensive, unhelpful and unnecessary! When you post on these forums you are asking peoples opinions and what they think. Okay I could have phrased it a little better but I stick to the point that more time could have been made to allow for delays and train changes and getting across the platforms etc.