Refunds after Engineering work closures

mrBlue

A recent experience with Southern regarding a refund request for an Advance puchased ticket needs National Policy clarification.


I bought an Advance ticket from Milton Keynes to Gatwick, via Kensington Olympia and Clapham Junction, for travel on Saturday 18 August. A day or so prior to travel, major engineering work was announced which resulted in total cancellation of all Southern trains from Milton Keynes to Watford and onwards via Kensington Olympia to Clapham Junction. This made the journey untenable, so I had to arrange to travel from Beford on Thameslink at > double the price.

I submitted a refund claim, but was refused (twice) for incorrect reasons because they couldn't find the train on their system that I was booked to travel on (despite my copying the email confirmation!)


I phoned Southern Customer Services and spoke with 2 people, the 2nd of whom, from the Delay Repay section, explained that since Southern wasn't responsible for the engineering work, Advance ticket refinds were not covered by either Southern Ts&Cs or National Rail Ts&Cs.

However, the guy agreed to send me a refund in Rail Vouchers as a good will gesture.

My question is this: Why is engineering work any different from any other reason for failure to provide the service? If one party of a contract is unable to honour the contract, for any reason, then the party unable to honour the contract is liable to recompense or refund the other. Since I didn't have a contract with Network Rail, I couldn't claim from them, only from Southern.

Does this mean that no-one should ever buy an Advance ticket?