Great Western Coffee Shop

On said train - which actually left 55 minutes late.  What was really frustrating is that the staff at HFD knew how late it would be as the driver needed his hours break - but they tantalized us with 10 minutes, then 20 then 30 then the good old Delayed with no time.  If they'd just admitted when it was leaving, we could have all gone to KFC or morrisons or something!

Anyway, I digress.  I need to know what time it makes it to paddington because if its over an hour, I'm claiming my 54 quid back!

Hmm - you might be labouring under a misapprehension here.

Unless you're travelling to Paddington, the arrival time there is of no consequence for you getting a refund. What matters is how late you get to the destination on your ticket.

So for example you could catch a train that is only 10 late, but if that causes you to miss an official connection en route and you end up an hour late at your destination that's still a full refund. By the same token, you could theoretically travel on an HFD-PAD service to RDG which arrived there on time but was then heavily delayed between RDG and PAD, arriving 60+ late. Obviously in that case you would have no claim to compensation because you got to your destination on time.

So bottom line, check the station clock where/when you arrive at your ticketed destination. If you're an hour late then it's a refund. If not, no dice unfortunately.

See I thought it worked the other way...........

Even if say I were 1 hour 10 late at reading, if the train got to paddington less than an hour late, then its no dice.

Which is why I specifically requested paddington.

This way however is so much easier :-)

Moot point however since we've just left Morton 48 late so unless we get tied up at oxford, its unlikely to lose another 12 between here and reading

1P65 left 53 mins late Hereford, now 48 mins late leavig MIM.

NRE currently states it 'will' be 48 late at Oxford @ 18.24 and 45 late at Reading (18.47). However as I write this at 18.30 it says you left 53 later and to be 50 late at Reading. Good news is that you are booked on plat 5 at 18;52 and 14.00 ex PZ is due (on time) at 18.51 on plat 5. Doesnt look too good for getting your money back though. Good luck.

Left RDG 54 mins late. 54 mins late passing SLO. 52 mins late passing STL. 53 mins late passing EAL. Into PAD 53 mins late. Ptl 9

If you wanted your money back badly enough you could have purchased an excess to Reading West, and i suspect you would have been +1 hour late. However I don't condone performing such an action ;)

Especially not when the issue time/date printed on the excess will make it blatantly obvious what you're up to.

And what if you genuinely wanted to go to Reading West!

Interesting comparison between FGW and XC compensation.
While FGW will provide alternative transportation if your next connection is not for over an hour, they only compensate you for delays over sixty minutes (and only then if the railway is to blame - I'm willing to be corrected on that). XC will only provide alternative transportation if another connection is more than two hours away, but they will start compensation from 30 mins delay, whatever the cause.

Isn't there a contract point here? If FA had a ticket from Hereford to Reading then the railway has entered into a contract to transport her there. No further. And thus any delay compensation is based on the journey paid for, ticket issued and arrival time at the said station.

If, however, later in the journey FA chooses to purchase a new ticket or excess to a different station then any delays that have already occurred shouldn't be taken into consideration.

Quite.

That's why I don't think there's be any compensation due even if you did try that little stunt. If you genuinely did want to go to Reading West then you'd have bought a ticket to go there. And (at least if it was me) I'd get to Reading and buy an extra ticket for that short hop, not try and excess the original ticket then claim a refund of exceedingly dubious legitimacy.

Ok well firstly I had thought about that - but since its not something I would do, I didnt - just like I don't dumbell even though I could etc etc

However there were two things that riled me today - one the railways fault, one not

1. Why were the hereford station staff not honest with us passengers.  They were told by the TM and the Guard that the earliest the train would leave platform 1 to turn back was 1545 - which means the earliest departure at best is 1555 and more if it conflicts with a northbound arriva service - which it did.  The 1555 to Picadilly.

Even if the CIS couldnt handle it, a manual tannoy would have saved a whole lot of angst and we;d have known we had 45 minutes to go off and do whatever.  I don't berate lack of information when its a fatality or something like a break down where they generally do not know at all but really.  They knew 1545 yet the screens showed 1521, 1531, 1541, Delayed, Delayed, At one point I think a brief cancelled appeared before it finally showed as leaving when it did.

That is poor passenger service

2. Of all the years i've been doing this, the number of times I've been 45 late, 30 late, diverted via somewhere, etc etc I never once thought to claim anything but sat there praying we wouldnt get help up on single trak - which we invariably did

The ONE TIME I'm praying for a single track hold up - even just 6 minutes - we sail through no problems even though effectively an hour late.

I am Mr Perrins sister

I've not yet seen a ticket to Reading that doesn't say Reading Stations though...

Fair point  :D - but the comments from me and John R above would still apply if you tried the same scam excessing to, say, Tilehurst or Theale.

So a Reading would actually get you to Readin West - interesting

As long as it says Reading Stations and not just Reading.

Would be a ^0.00 excess anyway. Aside from the obvious scam, John you raise an interesting point.

You say I an contracted to the journey I purchase first, say I then excess a ticket on board legitimately, then after this am delayed, am I covered for delay?

Having dabbled a bit in contract law (my original degree was accounting and business law) I would say as long as the time stamp on the ticket was BEFORE the length of the delay became apparent, then you should be.....since excessing on board is allowed

Anyway, my postulation is a moot point since I'll have my RC back tomorrow and I'd never ever claim back a first fair issued with a RC on board a train.  I wouldnt want to dob in a nice train manager

I suspect that's absolutely correct. Which still means that, when all's said and done, you can't try and purchase some kind of shady excess fare in the interests of stringing things out to score a full refund if you're delayed! I suspect this works something like insurance, where is has to be purchased before something goes t*ts up: to take a contemporary example, if I purchased travel insurance before British Airways strike dates were announced then I'd be covered for delays/cancellation due to that strike. If I purchased it afterwards, the not unreasonably I'd be out in the cold.

Such an excess does not exist.  Al ticket to Reading include Reading West

So in THEORY I could just have claimed I was going to Reading West

in theory yes. But that would be fr*ud

Wasn't he the founder of psychoanalysis...? ;)

I think that's because the XC franchise, being about 18 months newer than FGW's, was let after the DfT had started specifying the "delay-repay" scheme for all new franchises, whereby partial compensation kicks in at 30 minutes with a full refund at 60 minutes as before.

You're absolutely right about FGW - currently only compensation for delays "within the control of the rail industry", so things like suicides, trespass, severe weather etc are not compensated. However the delay-repay arrangement as applied to XC and later franchises doesn't discriminate between causes of delay, so XC would have to refund you for a delay due to, say, flooding whereas FGW would not.