Train delay - missed connection - compensation

Mike1983

Hello all, I hope you can assist.

I travelled from London to Sheffield via Retford on a one way ticket. The London- Retford leg was 20 minutes late meaning I missed my connection to Sheffield and caught the next train. In total I was 45 minutes late.

I put in a claim with Hull trains who have set me a cheque for £4 which equates to 50% of a Retford - Sheffield ticket. My understanding is that I should actually receive 50% of the whole ticket which cost £52.50, as if I never had the Sheffield leg added they would have been liable to compensate me for the delay on the London - Retford leg.

Incidentally, I write this while travelling on a Sheffield - Doncaster - Peterborough - Stansted Airport open return and the Sheffield - Doncaster leg has already made me an hour late because of a fault on a train ahead!

dggar

Could be worth posting your question on this forum


http://www.railforums.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=152

Mobeer

This compensation matches their policy:

From:
http://www.hulltrains.co.uk/customer-services/faqs/

"What is the level of compensation I will receive?
a) 30-59 minutes – compensation of 50% of the relevant effected journey portion"


Whether their policy is reasonable is another question.

NBLondon

Mike1983 wrote: »

The London- Retford leg was 20 minutes late.
.....
as if I never had the Sheffield leg added they would have been liable to compensate me for the delay on the London - Retford leg.

Nope - If you had only been going to Retford, you would have been under 30 minutes late and so got nothing. You were more than 30 minutes late compared to your planned Retford to Sheffield leg so that's what they compensated on.


What mobeer said though... if you booked it as one journey with one company - should it be on the whole cost?

cookie365

Ask on the forum @dggar linked to

My understanding is that if they've signed up to Delay Repay they have to refund if the total journey (London to Sheffield) is delayed by more than 30 minutes.

But if not they only have to refund if the total journey is more than an hour late and anything less is down to their policy.

But I might be wrong so ask on railforums

martinbuckley

Did you have a through ticket, or had you bought two separate ones?

wealdroam

martinbuckley wrote: »

Did you have a through ticket, or had you bought two separate ones?

Why does that matter?

It is perfectly in order to have two or more tickets covering one journey, and if the passenger reaches their destination late any compensation should be based on the whole journey.

Laz123

Bring back Dr Beeching.

yorkie2

martinbuckley wrote: »

Did you have a through ticket, or had you bought two separate ones?

It makes no difference.

Compensation is due for the entire cost of the journey, based on a 45 minute delay.

yorkie2

Mobeer wrote: »

This compensation matches their policy:

From:
http://www.hulltrains.co.uk/customer-services/faqs/

"What is the level of compensation I will receive?
a) 30-59 minutes – compensation of 50% of the relevant effected journey portion"


Whether their policy is reasonable is another question.

You misunderstand what is meant by "portion".

It does not mean journey leg.

It's not a well written piece (for a start, it should be affected!), as a portion refers to either an outward or return portion of a return ticket. For a single ticket, there is only one 'portion' so it's an irrelevance.

Compare a delay of 60-119 minutes with a delay of 120 minutes; the compensation is the same if you hold a single ticket, but if you hold a return ticket, the latter will give you compensation of both portions.

Mike1983

So thank you to everyone who replied. I sent off a letter saying I thought the compensation should have be half of the whole ticket price.

They wrote back to me a few days latser saying they agreed and a cheque will be with me soon!