Calculating Refund on Season Ticket

ThunderHoof

Hi, I purchased an annual season ticket for £1,650 from Lancaster to Preston to run from 12th July 19 to 11th July 20, as I work for Lancashire County Council we were all immediately made to work from home 17th March as soon as the government announcement was made. Based on the estimates that the peak of coronavirus cases in Lancashire is going to be around the 11th of May there is no realistic possibility of going back to the office for months so even if the refund is small it is worth doing as I will definitely not be using the train again until July in all likelihood.

It's just under 17 weeks from 17th March to the 11th July, how can I calculate my refund? The information on this is so scarce you would think it was a state secret!

Owain_Moneysaver

Any refund is calculated from the date after the Season Ticket was returned to the retailer, and will be  the difference between the price you paid and the cost of a ticket or tickets for the period for which you have actually used the ticket up to and including the date a refund is requested. There may also be an administration charge of no more that £10.00.

Because of the discounts on longer term Season Tickets, refunds are not made pro rata to the periods before/after surrender and annual Season Tickets have no refund value after approximately 10 months.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46571.aspx#Refund

You won't get a refund for the period between 17th March and now, as you could have used your ticket. You should have applied for your refund as soon as possible.

How it's actually calculated is the season tickets you would have needed to buy for the period from 12 July 2019 to today, which is 9 months, so you'd be charged 9 monthly seasons (some at 2019 prices and some at 2020 prices as the fares change on 1 January), and any weekly seasons to make up odd days. You don't get back 3/12ths of the annual cost.

At current prices a monthly is £162.50 and an annual is £1692, so as 9 monthly seasons = £1462.50 your refund will be about £120. 

p00hsticks

Owain_Moneysaver said:

How it's actually calculated is the season tickets you would have needed to buy for the period from 12 July 2019 to today, which is 9 months, so you'd be charged 9 monthly seasons (some at 2019 prices and some at 2020 prices as the fares change on 1 January), and any weekly seasons to make up odd days. 

I aagree with most of your post but I'm not sure about this calculation.

You can buy a season ticket for any specified period of between a month and a year, so it would have been perfectly possible to buy a single season ticket at 2019 prices that started on 12/07/19 and ended on 12/4/20 (or whenever the day after you request a refund is).

I think that it's the price of such a season ticket, rather than a combination of monthly and weekly tickets at both 2019 and 2020 prices, that would be subtracted from the original cost of the annual ticket to work out what refund is due.

ThunderHoof

The Avanti website specifically states that because of coronavirus, refunds can be backdated to 17th March.

avantiwestcoast.co.uk/help/coronavirus-travel-information#changestotravel

"You’ll be able to backdate your refund claim to the last date you travelled, but no earlier than Tuesday 17 March 2020. This is in line with the government announcement to work from home whenever possible, made on Monday 16 March 2020."

I realise the refund is not pro rota but wasn't sure of the exact method of calculation. So basically I need to work out how many 1 month tickets at 2019 prices I would have bought and how many 1 month and 1 week tickets at 2020 prices I would have bought between 11/7/19 and 17/3/20 and deduct that cost from the £1650?

ThunderHoof

Unfortunately my card statements only go back 6 months so I don't know the price of last years monthly tickets but they were approx £155 if I remember correctly so I work it out like this 6 x £155 = £930 which takes me to approx 16th Jan, then 2x £162.50 =  £325 which takes me to approx 17th March. £930 + £325 + £10 admin fee = £1,265 and gives a refund of £385.

Thanks for your assistance.

Black_Monk

Dear All
I have a similar question, I did claim a refund as soon as I was told to work from home but I don't understand how the refund was calculated.  I bought a ticket for travel between my home town and London from 24th February to 3rd April, 40 days travel for £586.50.  I was told to work from home on the 19th March, I refunded my ticket when I got back to my home station, it had been used for 25 days.  Now doing a pro-rata calculation I reckon I have used (25/40) x 586.50 = £366.56 of the value of my ticket
so I would have expected a discount of 586.50 - 366.56 - 10.00 = £209.94
My refund was actually £132.60 (£77.34 less)
Now many thanks to Owain_Moneysaver for that link that states the rail companies don't base refunds on pro-rata usage, but how then are they calculating it?  I don't understand what a longer term discount has to do with it, any refund should be based solely on how much the ticket cost?
Please enlighten me!

KeithP

Black_Monk said:

Please enlighten me!

When seeking a refund, the clerk will work out what the price would've been had you originally bought a season ticket for the period up to the time of asking for a refund.

Subtracting that from the price you actually paid for your ticket (and maybe subtracting a £10 admin fee - can't remember) and you have the value of the refund.

Please tell us the origin and destination stations on you season ticket and I will try and explain in detail.

rdr

You often get more back by doing a changeover on to a really cheap season ticket Devonport to Devonport Dockyard is good. A search for Devonport will find some examples, Plus you can change it back at the annual rate if you restart travelling before the ticket runs out.

ThunderHoof

rdr said:

You often get more back by doing a changeover on to a really cheap season ticket Devonport to Devonport Dockyard is good. A search for Devonport will find some examples, Plus you can change it back at the annual rate if you restart travelling before the ticket runs out.

I think for 99.99% of people a ticket from Devonport to Devonport Dockyard would be useless to them. 

martindow

ThunderHoof said:

rdr said:

You often get more back by doing a changeover on to a really cheap season ticket Devonport to Devonport Dockyard is good. A search for Devonport will find some examples, Plus you can change it back at the annual rate if you restart travelling before the ticket runs out.

I think for 99.99% of people a ticket from Devonport to Devonport Dockyard would be useless to them. 

They are not intending to travel there.  It is a strategy to avoid the heavy losses if you cancel a season ticket.

epm-84

Owain_Moneysaver said:

Any refund is calculated from the date after the Season Ticket was returned to the retailer, and will be  the difference 

....

There may also be an administration charge of no more that £10.00.

....

You won't get a refund for the period between 17th March and now, as you could have used your ticket. You should have applied for your refund as soon as possible.

That's what usually applies but in the current circumstances it's incorrect as special rules have been put in place.  You have until 12th May to claim refunds for unused parts of season tickets from 17th March and the £10 admin fee will not be charged.  It needs to be returned to the original point of sale - so if that was Lancaster station then it needs to be either Lancaster station or another station where the ticket office is managed by the same operator.
https://help.northernrailway.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/360006698877

Some stations have ticket barriers and if you have a smart card season ticket then on board inspectors may have scanned it during your journey, so those are two ways they can identify whether the ticket has been used on a certain date.