Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Bracknell News Midweek (http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/bracknell/articles/2014/03/07/98357-passengers-hit-out-over-claims-they-are-being-ripped-off-by-train-companies/):

Why wasn't it adopted during the most recent negotiation with the DfT for the 23 month management contract? Virgin, when they got their extension, moved over to Delay Repay.

I don't think it's a case either of FGW "supporting", or "...would like to adopt" Delay Repay when the franchise is re-tendered. Delay Repay is a fixture of all franchise awards.

That's exactly what I expected to happen. It was explained thus in the abandoned ITT for the GW franchise and clearly not optional:



Call me a cynic, but I'd expect delay repay to actually be cheaper for the TOCs than dishing out annual 5% or 10% 'charter discounts' whether individual passengers have been delayed or not...

Paul

I think Delay Repay is probably more expensive. Not only is every type of ticket holder eligible for compensation per journey, but the threshold starts at 30 minutes and payment is made regardless of the cause of the delay.

I wonder if someone at FGW had a crystal ball in the summer last year, when the management contract was being negotiated, and foresaw the problems outside their control that have befallen the network in recent weeks.

Legally, FGW have not had to offer compensation to anyone effected by the Dawlish sea wall collapse, line closures due to fallen trees, flooding at Fordgate, flooding at Athelney, flooding at Redbridge, groundwater incursion near Maidenhead... and all the knock on journey delays those have caused.

However, see para 18 of the first letter published here under FOI discussing the pros and cons.   They give a figure for the savings by FCC as an example, and they are generally reckoned one of the less reliable services:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/25022/response/198723/attach/4/110802%20Sittampalam%20FOI%20ICO%20Delay%20Repay%20Released.pdf

There are a selection of papers discussing the policy, and responses to some TOCs criticisms included here and there.

Paul

Although I note on a couple of occasions in that FOI bundle that 'Delay Repay' is more expensive to administer than automatic discounts annually for Season Ticket holders. And are the savings in the round or just relevant to compensation to Season Ticket holders? Also, what holds true for a TOC that predominantly carries commuters (such as FCC), where there will be a larger proportion of Season Ticket holders, may not be the same for a long distance or mixed traffic TOC.

FGW, being very much a 'mixed traffic' TOC, with commuter, regional, and long distance services may well find that Delay Repay, with its '30 minutes' and 'whatever the cause' thresholds, is more expensive overall. That's my contention.

If I understand the system correctly Delay Repay will be fairer.  Don't FGW get compensation for delays from Network Rail which they can currently hold on to if the delay is caused by things not included in the Passengers' Charter?

That's the money-go-round bobm.

And that's why we have (so I understand) some 300+ staff in the rail industry whose only job is to sort out delay attribution.  ::)

Delay Attributation
The posh name for passing delay mins to someone else even if it's your TOCs own fault. If you look hard enough you can normally pass the mins to NeR.