Train journey part-cancelled. How and what should I claim? And who from?

northeastcanuck

Yesterday I had a train booked from Manchester Airport to Durham. The journey consisted of 3 separate trains: Manchester Airport-Manchester Piccadilly (Northern) then Manchester Piccadilly - Leeds (transpennine) and lastly Leeds-Durham (transpennine). I discovered online before I left in the morning that the last leg (Leeds-Durham) had been cancelled. Arriving at the station I asked at the ticket booth what my options were and they said I could get the next train from Leeds-Durham (crosscountry) instead. Fine. That’s what I did and it worked fine. However, this did result in a delay to my arrival of approximately 20 minutes so I thought I might as well apply for delay compensation and that’s where things have become complicated…

I bought the ticket from Transpennine online and since it was their train that was cancelled I applied for compensation from them via their online service. A few minutes later I received an email to say I had been unsuccessful because the operator in question was Northern and the matter had been passed onto them (haven’t heard anything from Northern yet). But, the thing is this has nothing to do with Northern, they were simply the first train in the series of journeys and they were on time. It was transpennine that cancelled the train on the 3rd leg.

So my question is, who is responsible for this claim? And am I even going about this the right way? Should I just be claiming for a cancelled train even though I did complete the journey albeit a bit late? I realise it’s not a massive deal and only a small amount of compensation anyway but I will be taking this journey regularly in future due to work commitments and I am expecting this to be a recurring problem so it would be useful to know how to claim for this in future!

Any advice would be much appreciated!

The_Unready

Just to confirm, the total delay was just 20 minutes?

northeastcanuck

The_Unready said:

Just to confirm, the total delay was just 20 minutes?

Approximately that yes - 22 minutes 

daveyjp

You claim from the company that caused the initial delay, which from the journey appears to be Transpennine due to the cancellation.

northeastcanuck

daveyjp said:

You claim from the company that caused the initial delay, which from the journey appears to be Transpennine due to the cancellation.

That’s what I thought, so what do I do now because they’ve rejected it due to the first train being Northern? I’m assuming their whole system is automated which is why it is getting confused. Can I appeal this?

daveyjp

Submit again and raise a complaint.  

northeastcanuck

daveyjp said:

Submit again and raise a complaint.  

Ok I’ll give that a go and see what happens, thanks.

jbuchanangb

Trans Pennine Express may not offer compensation for delays less than 30 minutes. As it was indeed their train cancellation which caused your delay,  compensation may not be available. see https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/help On the other hand the actual claim portal says they offer DR for delays over 15 minutes. So proceed with an appeal, emphasising that it was their train cancellation which caused your delay.