Great Western Coffee Shop

A question from one of my data feeds ... from a passenger who travelled in the lead up to Christmas, was booked on a train that was cancelled a couple of days ahead, arrived very much later that planned. Has asked for recompense through "Delay / Repay" but told the train he claims to have been wishing to travel on didn't exist ...

Question is - "what recompense if any is he due (both morally and under the system) for his seriously mucked up anddelayed from booked travel?

Taking a systemic view ... thinking it though ...

Trains are removed from the timetable at various stages (sometimes replaced by slower buses)
* very early on for planned engineering (1)
* quite late on for emergency engineering (2)
* a couple of days ahead when it's obvious there aren't enough working trains or crew (3)
* early in the morning when it's clean enough trains or crew won't be available or engineering overruns (4)
* during the day when something goes wrong(5)
* during the journey (6)

My understanding is that "Delay Repay" wouldn't apply for a service rescheduled to a slower bus very early on [case 1].  But at the others extreme it does apply when something goes wrong during the journey [case 6]. So where is the cutoff in between?

I suspect it applies in the bottom three cases, when trains show as cancelled on industry sources on the day, and to us on things like JourneyCheck and RealTimeTrains [4,5,6]. But not in the top three cases, when the train doesn't appear in the system [1,2,3].

There is an argument to suggest that if someone's booked a ticket intending to travel on a particular train - especially if holding a reserved seat or an advanced ticket that they should be able to able to claim for their delay - however, I think that's dealt with (on advance tickets anyway) by being able to ask for your money back.

In the run up to Christmas and the timetable change, large numbers of trains were removed from the timetable at [3] ... in such volumes and at such a late stage it really messed things up for a lot of people.  Was one of the effects of removing trains a couple of days ahead to save GWR money on compensation?

 
If the person wrote a letter of complaint to gWR I would expect issue of some travel vouchers as a gesture of goodwill without prejudice.

Certainly if TFW were the culprit TOC, they would likely issue travel vouchers.
I received a £10 voucher from them recently for just pointing out, initially to NRES who told me to contact the TOC/ TFW, that a 'latest travel news' entry  for disruption due to flooding on the Cambrian main line, was incorrect and misleading !

If the ticket was purchased prior to the changes then unless the customer was contacted and accepted the change then the service did not run as purchased

Would I be correct that there's some automation in GWR's delay repay system?  It's easy to see how a "computer says no" scenario could arise if changes have been made to the timetable at very short notice.  I have always customer service representatives tend to give benefit of doubt in situations where they could technically wriggle out of paying compensation.  Definitely worth appealing a failed delay repay claim, as it will then have to receive the attention of a real person.

Need to know whether it was an Advance or flexible ticket (with reservation).

Generally speaking, a revised timetable has to be published with 24 hours notice - so late-notice engineering, flood (weather) disruption etc, strike action....to be valid for delay/repay rather thyan the 'normal' timetable.

So more likely to get comp if a service with Advance ticket booked was removed and no attempt at notification made. But otherwise if the change(s) were made more than 24 hours, the revised timetable takes precedence and any delay needs measuring against that....

If they were booked on a specific train surely they have the relevant reservation to go with it?

In the case of an Advance ticket, yes - in the case of a flexible ticket, only with a reservation - hence my ask.