Taking Southeastern Railway to Small Claims Court...

markent

Hi,

I am contemplating taking Southeastern railway to small claims court to get compensation for not being able to get to work reliably whilst we had the snow at the end of November.
Basically I had a monthly ticket (cost £500) and was attempting to get work by 8am. I normally get the 06:43 from Ashford to St Pancras and then cross London to Enfield, this is generally a bit of a rush but if the trains run on time works a treat.
Now during the snowy period this was impossible to achieve so I worked from home. Sure they may well have been able to get me to work at some time during the day and might have been able to get me home. But this is not good enough.
I wrote a letter of complaint with regards to the delays and got a letter back saying that because I had a monthly ticket I was not eligible for any compensation as the performance figures did not dip below their agreed franchise target.
Today I attempted to get to work and my connecting train from Westenhanger to Ashford was cancelled at short notice (5 minutes!) and therefore missed the train into London. So I came home and worked from home, yet again! The ticket price has now gone up to £556 and I know I will not get any compensation due to the passenger’s charter. It is so frustrating that I am delayed at least once a week and have no recourse to compensation.
If I had a daily or weekly ticket then I would get compensation. I had a weekly ticket last year at one stage and for a delayed train of 30 minutes I got £13 compensation, yet with a monthly I am entitled to none.
I am not trying to get something for nothing but not being able to get to work reliably for a week surely means I should get a week’s compensation?

Thanks for taking the time to read this drivel

spiro

I think you will find that the compensation scheme was imposed by the government and the TOCs all operate the same policy. No doubt there are get out clauses to cover things like the extreme snow we've had. Also because you appear to be taking a journey that relies on various connections I suspect you stand little chance of compensation because 2 or 3 5-10min delays could add up to an hour or more for you, but the 5-10 min ones dont 'count'.

Quentin

Get some advice before you take court action.

You will have to pay all court fees yourself up front, and you only get these back (off the defendant) if you win.

And if you lose, then you will also have to pay the defendant's expenses.

All this will add up!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Quentin wrote: »

Get some advice before you take court action.

You will have to pay all court fees yourself up front, and you only get these back (off the defendant) if you win.

And if you lose, then you will also have to pay the defendant's expenses.

All this will add up!

What he said.. Be very wary of taking them to court. the delay repay for a monthly ticket is the same as a season for a year - it has to fall below a certain level.. I believe with a weekly its a bit different.

http://www.railforums.co.uk/ and let them know yoru problem and they will help better

Livingthedream

Good Luck, some good advice from the above posters, one other avenue that you can proceed down is complaining to Passenger Focus and if they don't help then try Office of the Rail Regulation, however, the ORR won't entertain a complaint until you've had a reply from Passenger focus.

If both of those don't work then I would advise getting some good legal advice.

sirmarcus

You have my sympathies.

To help you and your court case, I suggest that you look at the Daily Telegraph at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...pensation.html for more info.

As you will see from the article...Southeast railways, which carries more than 120,000 passengers a day into central London, would have been forced to cut five per cent off season tickets if fewer than 82 per cent of trains ran on time over the last 12 months.

I'm afraid that you are just one of the countless victims of how the rail companies treat it's customers.

If you go ahead with your court action, good luck and I hope you succeed.

If you decide not to proceed, it may be worth your while contacting Greg Barker (as referenced in the Telegraph article), a climate change minister and Tory MP for Bexhill and Battle, who has demanded an independent inspection of the figures, saying they “didn’t smell right”. You could also try contacting your local MP.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and I hope you get something from your efforts.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

The main thing with that article sirmarcus is that its talking about discounts on year long season tickets and a 5% discount. periodical seasons like a monthly would in effect get far far less if anything.

but good luck with how you go forward OP. I do believe that SET were being a bit off with how they got their figures but these are verified by other parties so its very difficult to know for sure either way

Rolandtheroadie

Did you attempt to get to work using the trains? Or arrange to work from home as you knew there would be problems?
If it's the latter, would a small claims action be successful?

Livingthedream

sirmarcus, seen that article posted here and apparantly South East Trains are very good at cancelling trains to get the required figures, so not to have to pay out on season ticket compensation, whether it would help in any legal case is another thing unfortuanalty.

sirmarcus

No probs...just trying to help the OP.

Whatever OP decides to do....Hope she/he gets a result.

markent

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. On Tuesday I did not attempt to get to work, I turned around and worked from home. I had an important task to perform for a customer at 8am and would not have been in work in time to perform it and it would have had to be cancelled.
Today the same thing happened, waiting for the train and it was cancelled 7 minutes after it was due to depart. This time I came to work and was 30 minutes late
It is so annoying. My ticket increased by £56 per month and the service is worse. I am entitled to zero compensation at they massage their figures.
So far this week out of 15 trains taken on SET, 2 have been cancelled, 3 have been late by over the 4min 59seconds specified in the passenger charter. So that is 1/3rd of my transport messed up. Why should I not be entitled to compensation? This is why I want to take them to SCC.
My boss could be a right git if he wanted and force me to work late or dock my pay for being late and I would have to do it. SET can cancel trains and run them late with no recourse :mad: