Taxi refund

librarian83

I paid for a ticket to get me to the airport, I got about two stops down the line, the points failure happened and therefore the train company could not provide a service to the airport. It was a single line track so there was no other route we could have taken to get there. I have travel insurance so I will check with them if I don't get anywhere with the train company. Thanks for advice, though obviously I want to pursue all avenues before the insurance route.

Quentin

librarian83 wrote: »

....I want to pursue all avenues before the insurance route.

Your only hope from the train company was a goodwill gesture.


As everyone has told you, you have no rights to compensation from the train company.


From your OP it seems you have no chance of a goodwill gesture.


Your only other avenue is your travel insurance.


It will be a simple matter to check your policy and see if you have any cover regarding consequential losses following public transport failure.


If covered you need to then check the conditions for claiming as there won't be an open ended window to make claims.


Otherwise if not covered then move on!

Mr_Singleton

librarian83 wrote: »

Hi there
I applied to Abellio Greater Anglia for a refund for my taxi fare to an airport

You seem to have got short shrift from all the others that have answered your post but I have to admit I think that you do have a case. I fully admit my legal knowledge is limited to a Law grade 'B' O Level a <FX:cough> fair few years ago but heres my thinking.....

Everyone seems to be banding around " you can't claim for consequential loses" which is fair enough but I'd argue that the taxi WASN'T a consequential loss. If you were claiming for a missed flight then yes that WOULD be a consequent loss hence not allowable.

So, we know that you'd bought a ticket to an airport (Stanstead Express? if so you have a much better claim as they charge a super premium price for it) and I assume that you left a reasonable amount of time to factor in any possible reasonable delay's. I would think that most reasonable people would consider that the contract formed would be "time is of the essence". The train company simply can't shrug its shoulders and say tough although I suspect they do because they get away with it.

So, once the train had stopped and it become obvious that you were going to miss your flight what did the train company do to up hold their end of the contract. I suspect nothing other than call out the engineers and fix the points.

In breach of its "time is of the essence" contract you quite rightly in my view took reasonable steps to fulfil the contract that the train company was unable to. Its no different to a builder screwing up a job and you getting in another builder to complete the job and sending the original builder the bill a well known legal remedy.

From what I can tell you did everything within your reasonable power to mitigate the train companies losses while enforcing the contract i.e. there were 3 people in the taxi you didn't order a helicopter or a chauffeured driven limousine so personally if you took them to the small claims court I can't see that they've got a leg to stand on.

Thoughts anyone?

Mr_Singleton

Quentin wrote: »

Your only hope from the train company was a goodwill gesture.

Which is normally paid when a company is wrong or they're terrified of bad publicity or a tenacious consumer taking them to court, winning and setting a legal precedent. :beer:

Voyager2002

FWIW I once suffered a train breakdown on the way to an airport. The rail staff (FGW) simply ordered the taxi for me and paid the firm directly.

p00hsticks

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Thoughts anyone?

Re "time is of the essence"... the train company has very clear definitions of the compensation it offers for delays which can be seen in advance of booking. If a potential passenger doesn't consider those adequate then they should be considering travel insurance to cover their potential losses.

If the train company considered it appropriate to provide a bus or taxi service to replace a broken down train then the correct approach would be for the train company to arrange and pay for it.

Mr_Singleton

p00hsticks wrote: »

the train company has very clear definitions of the compensation it offers for delays which can be seen in advance of booking.

As a commercial company of course it does.... thankfully for consumers that doesn't trump Contract or Consumer Law. You can write 'Tough luck' in your T&C's all you like but doesn't make it legal even if you do get away with it 99.9% of the time. 'Goodwill gestures' covers the other 0.1%

p00hsticks wrote: »

If the train company considered it appropriate to provide a bus or taxi service to replace a broken down train then the correct approach would be for the train company to arrange and pay for it.

Your naivety is quite astonishing

yorkie2

Mr_Singleton, what are you trying to say? The facts appear to be that the Train Company would have got the OP to the destination but the OP wanted to get there faster so abandoned his rail journey and, at his own expense, made alternative arrangements.

p00hsticks

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Your naivety is quite astonishing

May I ask how often you actually travel by train ?

Mr_Singleton

yorkie2 wrote: »

the Train Company would have got the OP to the destination

At some point your saying?.... 2 hours late?, 14 hours late? couple of days late what the hell you'll get there!!! !!!!!!!

yorkie2 wrote: »

the OP wanted to get there faster

Nope, he wanted to get there at the time which the train company advertised and for which the contract was agreed and consideration paid.

yorkie2 wrote: »

so abandoned his rail journey and, at his own expense, made alternative arrangements.

The train company breached its contract with the OP in failing to provide the service for which it was paid to provide. The OP to my mind was fully within his rights to fulfil the contract terms using the taxi and seek remedy from the train company for its breach.