Ok... Who to claim compensation from this time?

[whole diary]

[thetrout]

I have had an interesting experience on the railway today...

I have a lovely selection of SVR/FSR^▸ (First Scot Rail) and Excess split tickets which are as follows (SVR = Standard Class Off Peak Return and FSR = First Class Off Peak Return retrospectively):

Southend Stations - Gatwick Airport (SVR Return Portion + First Class Excess)
Gatwick Airport - Southampton Central via Barnham (FSR Return Portion)
Southampton Central - Bath Spa with reservation for the 12:10 (A train I will now miss - SVR Return Portion)

I have already written to GreaterAnglia on a separate matter to do with the journey (Nonsense about not being able to excess an Off Peak ticket to an Anytime Ticket - Will post the story when they reply)

Why compensation you might ask? Delays...

07:32 Southend Victoria - London Liverpool Street arrived 19 minutes late (Signal Failure at London Liverpool Street - Advised by Driver over tannoy at Shenfield)

Manage to make the 09:30 Gatwick Express Service with 3 minutes to spare. At Gatwick Airport I struggle to find the 10:09 to Southampton Central. I checked both http://tickets.firstgreatwestern.co.uk and http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk and it had disappeared... It was there when I checked at around 01:00 this morning! A printed timetable on the platform at Gatwick Airport suggests it does exist.

So I downloaded the timetable from the Southern' Website... It definitely exists as a Bognor Regis/Southampton Train which splits at Barnham. There is a 10:09 to Barnham and Bognor Regis on the screens at Gatwick Airport. I guess Alarm Bells should have rung at this point... But Nooooooo!!

I boarded the 10:09 and was advised by a conductor about a level crossing fault at Billingshurst and to change trains at Barnham. I look again on Realtimetrains and discover that the 11:17 from Barnham to Southampton arrives at 12:19... 9 minutes AFTER the 12:10 I have reservation for...

The next train being at 13:10 ... 1 Hour later

On Southern' website however is this lovely little extract staring me in the face when I open it up:

Monday 28th April - Service Disruption

Southern will be operating a reduced service between Horsham and Barnham today owing to a level crossing failure at Billingshurst. As a result of yesterdays failure services will be subject to alteration and cancellation and also subject to extended journey times of up to 20 minutes.

No direct services will operate between Portsmouth/Southampton towards London Victoria all day in both directions. Customers will be required to change and use local services between Brighton and Southampton/Portsmouth.

South West Trains are also accepting Southern tickets between Southampton/Portsmouth and London today.

My emphasis in bold... Yesterdays failure. So Southern would be within their rights to turn around and say that I knew in advance of the delay [when in actual fact I didn't until I was aboard the 10:09 heading for Barnham]

They could suggest I should've used South West Trains between London and Southampton if I had checked before travelling? A GTW - SOU via BAA ticket using via Clapham Junction/Basingstoke might be frowned upon I guess despite ticket acceptance.

Ultimately I will now miss the 12:10 and end up on the 13:10... Not a massive problem but certainly less than ideal.

But ultimately when should a passenger be expected to reasonably check before travelling?

At around 01:00AM for a train leaving at 09:32AM the same day [that's around 8 hours or 1/3rd of the day] doesn't seem too unreasonable to me... Bear in mind my delay on GreaterAnglia also so I was slightly rushing at Victoria. So decided to get the 09:30 Gatwick Express knowing it was very likely to get out of Victoria First.

So ultimately who do I send my compensation request letter to? My guess is Southern as it was the Billingshurst Delay that got me and GreaterAnglia just didn't help matters...! The minimum connection time at Southampton Central is 5 minutes and the time I had allowed was 9 minutes...

*sigh*

thetrout

[thetrout]

Scratch all that... Found a 12:27 to Great Malvern

[ChrisB]

I don't think you'll get any....sorry.

(Caveat - assuming Southern hadn't just added this to their website after you set out....but I doubt this)

Whether two tickets from London-Southampton via Gatwick = the ability to travel as they state via SWT^▸ (South West Trains) is debatable when splitting tickets - is there anything in NCoC that allows you to not STILL heed the requirement of stopping at the common station Gatwick - I think not unfortunately.

It's the downside of splitting tickets....and as they had forewarned you of the delay (I think they can expect a warning on their website before you set out on your journey to be sufficient), I think you have to swallow it.

[Southern Stag]

Informing you in advance of the delay does not prevent you from claiming compensation. The only potential difficulty would be that Southern may argue that they were running an altered timetable and that compensation is payable based on the delay against that timetable. It wouldn't do any harm to submit a claim anyway as they may well be sympathetic. Looking at Realtime Trains the 12:27 from Southampton Central arrived at Bath Spa at 14:10, so still more than 30 minutes after you were originally due to arrive, at 13:34. It would do no harm to submit a claim to Southern.

[Tim]

Informing you in advance of the delay does not prevent you from claiming compensation. The only potential difficulty would be that Southern may argue that they were running an altered timetable and that compensation is payable based on the delay against that timetable. It wouldn't do any harm to submit a claim anyway as they may well be sympathetic. Looking at Realtime Trains the 12:27 from Southampton Central arrived at Bath Spa at 14:10, so still more than 30 minutes after you were originally due to arrive, at 13:34. It would do no harm to submit a claim to Southern.

Be aware that in my recent experience Southern are useless at dealing with claims.  They make FGW^▸ (First Great Western) look pretty good.  very slow and tend not to read your claim properly.  But keep trying.  I managed to get compensation out of them recently on 2 of my disrupted journeys but it took 6 months.