Getting refund from Trainline for recent Euston closures

BiggaThanBen · 22 August 2019 at 12:45PM

Two times in August I travelled to Euston on a daily return ticket (so could use both Virgin and West Midlands trains) but wasn't able to get back on time due to closures of Euston (during the heatwave). I normally travel back at around 17:45 but there were not any trains running until 9-10pm on those days.

I tried to use the built feature in Trainline app "Refund ticket" but it was declined. Spoke to their CS on live chat and phone and got lied that the refund was processed but no such transactions were in the bank statement 2 weeks later.

How do I claim it properly ?

I assume it would be more straightforward to do it through train operator direct, but I am not sure if I can go this route as there are two, how do I chose which one is responsible?

Trainline have a web-form, but I am not sure which option applies to my scenario - "Cancelled, Delayed" ? "Could continue journey"? It looks that there are some cases where they wouldn't give a refund, but I strongly believe I should get one in this situation

scones · 22 August 2019 at 6:34PM

The basic rules are:

If disruption means you decide not to travel and don't use your ticket at all, you claim a refund from the retailer.
If you do travel but are delayed, you claim delay compensation from the train operating company who operated the delayed service.

In this case, it seems you did travel and therefore used part of your return ticket. Either Virgin Trains or London Northwestern Railway will consider a 'delay repay' compensation claim for your delayed / cancelled return. This is probably easier than getting Trainline to try and refund 'half' of your return ticket.

Just start a claim with whichever train company you had planned to travel with - both companies have full details of how to do this on their website. Put in the details of the train you had originally intended to use and they'll award compensation based on how late you were or would have been.

Incidentally, Trainline can be a more expensive option for booking train tickets as they often add a booking fee on top of the ticket price. Book direct using any train company's own website (it doesn't matter which) and you can get the exact same tickets without paying the extra booking fee.

daveyjp · 22 August 2019 at 6:56PM

Another reason to avoid Trainline, they become an unnecessary intermediary when things go wrong.

BiggaThanBen · 22 August 2019 at 7:41PM

Incidentally, Trainline can be a more expensive option for booking train tickets as they often add a booking fee on top of the ticket price. Book direct using any train company's own website (it doesn't matter which) and you can get the exact same tickets without paying the extra booking fee.

Thanks, will try to claim direct.

As for TL I use it because I normally book my day return tickets to London as I walk, 5 min before departure. TL has been very quick and reliable generating the tickets. Won't be able to do it via website.

West Midlands app has horrendous reviews.
Installed TrainPal today - no fees, but it took a while to get to QR code screen.

Neil49 · 22 August 2019 at 10:18PM

I use the West Midlands Rail app and although I only gave it 2 stars in my review the one feature that works really well for me is booking through my phone. The ticket comes through onto the app in seconds even though the email is slow to appear.

My gripe with the app is that it is really hard work searching for train services where there is a choice of 2 different departure stations to 2 different arrival points (Worcester Foregate Street /Shrub Hill and Birmingham New Street / Snow Hill). Previously I could enter Worcester stations to Birmingham stations and get all combinations of routes. Now I have to enter each station individually and every combination for them.

Now that I have had my moan I suggest you give the app a try as it doesn't cost anything. It's a bit clunky in terms of downloading tickets and releasing them for travel etc but it only takes a few seconds while waiting for the train beats queuing up at the ticket office.

Hope this helps.

Getting refund from Trainline for recent Euston closures

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