Delay Repay 15 comes in on GWR on 1st April 2019

[whole diary]

[Surrey 455]

“All train companies should offer Delay Repay 15 and make compensation automatic for all passengers so they no longer have to jump through hoops to get what they are owed.”

How does he propose to identify the passengers on that service for an automatic payment?

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) want you to use a smartcard to tap in and out. Later this year they will bring in automatic delay repay based on when you tapped in and out. I don't know how it will work because if my train is delayed, I will not tap in. I will go for a coffee or beer instead until one of my apps tells me that my delayed train will soon arrive or depart.

What he said! Would work for Advances on any type of ticket/smartcard, but I don't think it's being thought through very well otherwise

SWR have now launched their automatic delay repay. Looks like I am going to have to get into the habit of touching in and out at my local station. It seems that they will email me with what they think my delay is but I have the option of correcting it if necessary. That seems a good move.

From South Western Railway

Automated Delay Repay (ADR) is our new way of claiming compensation for season ticket holders using our Touch smartcard and if you've purchased an Advance ticket through southwesternrailway.com. We're introducing ADR in March 2019.

How does Automated Delay Repay (ADR) work?
For Touch smartcard season ticket holders ADR will track your journey and train based on when you tapped in and out using your Touch smartcard. If we think you have experienced a delay of 15 minutes or more a claim will be generated and appear in your delay repay account. If you haven't opted out for ADR notifications you will receive and email alert every time this happens. You then have the option to accept, decline or amend the claim based on your actual journey experience.

If you have an Advance ticket the system will generate a claim if there is a delay of 15 minutes or more on the train you booked to travel on.

To be eligible for ADR, you'll need to have bought your Advance or Touch smartcard season ticket at southwesternrailway.com.

How do I use ADR?
Create an account at delayrepay.southwesternrailway.com
Opt in to Automated Delay Repay
Tap in and tap out whenever you travel
Our system identifies if your train was delayed, and creates a claim on your behalf
To be eligible for Automated Delay Repay you need to have purchased either Advanced tickets or Touch smartcard season tickets through our website. To do this you will first need to sign up for My Account. Please note the email address for My Account & Delay Repay need to match. If you already have My Account, please ensure you’re using the same email address for Delay Repay.

Do I have to use ADR?
ADR is an opt-in system so will only create claims on your behalf if you sign up. If you've opted in to ADR, you can still create claims yourself using the online form.

Do I have to tap in and tap out for ADR?
Yes, without this data we will not be able to determine whether your journey was delayed or not.

I don't want to switch to a Touch smartcard - can I still use ADR?
Unfortunately due to technology restrictions we are not able to offer paper ticket users ADR. In the future we hope to be able to support ADR across other digital tickets. If you want to get a Touch smartcard find out more here.

Can I still make claims myself?
Absolutely - ADR is just one part of the scheme. If ADR detects that you've made a claim for a service you were on, it won’t automatically raise one for you. Similarly, if you make a claim for Delay Repay on a service and ADR has already generated a claim we will let you know.

Is ADR quicker than Delay Repay?
ADR claims are generated within 2-3 days of travel. This allows us to receive both your tap data and notifications of all delays. In most instances this is the fastest way to make a claim.

ADR has sent me a claim that isn't correct. What can I do?
If the delay band is incorrect you can amend the claim from your customer account. If you weren't delayed, you can decline the claim.

What if I've made a claim on behalf of someone else?
If you made claims in your account on behalf of someone else, with details that differed from yours, these claims will still appear in your new account, but will have your details associated with them. In future we will only accept claims from the account holder.

What if I haven't signed up for a Delay Repay account?
If you have previously made a claim but didn’t sign up for or verify your account, you can still see previous by entering your unique claim reference number and postcode in the “View a Previous Claim” section.

If you did not provide a verifiable email address or any email address when making a claim, you will no longer be able to access any previous claims.

What happens if I made a recent claim on the old Delay Repay system?
Please note that any claims made before today which have yet to be processed, your “old” account area will still be accessible through a link on the new account pages. Once these claims have been completed and any payment made, they will appear in your new account. All appeals submitted from now onward will be managed through the new system in the usual way.

[IndustryInsider]

Let's hope GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) don't have to deal with too many crooks like this:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7205697/Bedlington-fraudster-Gary-Thompson-avoids-jail-train-ticket-Delay-Repay-fraud-worth-40-000.html

[grahame]

From The Telegraph

Train passengers are missing out on millions of pounds in compensation for delays to their journeys because the refund process is too complicated, the travel watchdog has found.

A report by Transport Focus published today said that as much as £100m went unclaimed in 2017/18 in train delay compensation, as just 35% of passengers submitted claims.

This is despite punctuality on Britain’s rail network falling to a record low in 2018, with more than eight million passenger journeys held up by at least 29 minutes  according to consumer group Which?

Some people do not claim compensation because they are not aware they are entitled to it, while others believe it is not worth the effort.

The watchdog is calling on train companies to make the process quicker and easier for passengers.

This includes providing choices about how claims can be made and payments sent, and doing more to promote how and when passengers can claim, such as by making announcements on trains.

It also urged firms to establish more automated compensation schemes.

The watchdog is calling on rail passengers to “make their voice heard” by applying for compensation every time they experience a delay that is eligible for compensation.

Article continues talking about methods of claiming and making it easier and indeed automatic. I note that data is prior to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) introducing Delay Repay and over a year old, and talks about improvements in claim rates. 

Personally, I would love to see claim rates increase and total claim amounts decrease with a significant and lasting improvement in reliability.  Once again on Saturday, I found myself at a local event (Melksham's "Party in the Park") promoting train travel,  but with 9 out of 16 trains supposed to service the town that day cancelled - the third day in 7 we have suffered cancellations.

[Steve Bray]

I disagree that the claims process is complicated. For me though, the issue is the low refund that you receive for a 15 minute delay (although I appreciate all journeys are different)

For instance, I pay around £270 for my monthly season ticket. If I get particularly annoyed by a 15 minute delay, I will make a claim, but I receive around £1.70 or £1.80 which isn't a great deal. If there was a minimum payout of say £5, then I would claim more often. 

[Celestial]

I'm interested (and these are not hypothetical questions either) as to how DR works in the following situations:-

1.  I want to catch the train at 0900.  I see it is running 20 mins late, so arrive at the station and buy a ticket 10 mins before it is due. The ticket is timed at 0910.  The train ends up being 20 mins late.  Am I entitled to DR even though I bought the ticket after the train was due.

2. Similar to 1, but the train is cancelled, so I turn up and buy a ticket in time for the 0930.  I'm still delayed for 30 mins, though again the ticket time would suggest I wasn't.

3.  I want to catch a train from A to C via B.  I see that the train that connects at B for C is cancelled, so delay my departure from A by 30 minutes so as not to wait at B too long.  (The National Rail app has shown me that the connection is cancelled, and makes it clear that the earlier train has no connection, so I might as well have another cup of tea at home.)


Thank you.

[Fourbee]

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it) any delay is worked out against the intended journey; I have definitely seen text along the lines of "you must arrive at the station in time for your intended service", but I cannot see that now on any of the public webpages. It might be under the terms and conditions you agree to when submitting an online claim (anyone about to submit a DR claim who can check?!), but is not mentioned on the paper claim form (if it ever was).

Obviously with a smartcard the touch-in time will be used so that by definition rules out delaying your journey to the station - poignant for SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) smartcard season holders who are on the delay repay scheme, unlike GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) season ticket holders (on any medium who are still on Passenger Charter).

Any ticket purchase timestamped after the service you intended to catch has left is going to be rejected/based on the next service you were able to catch IMO^▸ (in my opinion).

Which is all a bit customer unfriendly really, when you could be at home/pub/somewhere else rather than clicking your heels on a windswept platform.

[Celestial]

That's interesting, thank you.  It will be very customer-unfriendly if that is the case, although I can see why the rule might be there.

If you've bought and collected a ticket well in advance then of course there is no issue, nor if you are on a line where you can only buy on board.  I guess if you buy on the app before your original train is due to depart then that will be ok too.

The only claim I have put in was accepted and paid within 5 working days.  I did take photos of the departure screen too showing the delay, in case they questioned it (they didn't) though this only seems to work on some types of screen as on others the flickering makes it impossible to take a photo.

[grahame]

Delay Repay is ... better, IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion), than what has gone before but as this thread is showing, "better" does not necessarily mean good.

I worry at the amount of resources that goes into bulking the system out for relatively small repayments, the time taken by claimants to get small amounts back (with no compensation to those claimants for the time they have to put in to get money back which is now theirs by right), and the catches and "gotchas" round the whole system.

I documented my journey from Milton Keynes to home in Melksham a couple of weeks back where I arrived in good time to pick up my planned public transport, was 90 minute late home due to a public transport failure, but not eligable for any compensation / repayment.

Here's the map of my journey - this is a photo of the network poster that's on display at Chippenham Station showing my route from Milton Keynes to Melksham.



I was at the designated Milton Keynes Central stop around 15 minutes before my service was due, but as no ticket issuing facilities are available there (they're on the bus) I was not able to get my ticket in those 15 minutes.

The service arrived on time, but then after unloading a gentleman in a wheelchair, the wheelchair ramp would not stow away and the bus just sat looking like this ...



... though with the driver trying time and again to get it to stow, on the basis of "if at first you don't succeed".   Then phoning for advise.   Then deciding that the service needed to be cancelled - next service due 30 minutes later, but delayed an extra 15 minutes because the new driver chose to help his colleague with the broken ram for a while, and also took a personal needs (smoking) break.

Net result - connection at Bicester which should have made even off the second bus failed.  Which meant that a run across at Oxford to the ongoing train failed which ... resulted in an arrival at Chippenham on the train that followed the TransWilts service into there!   And TransWilts services are infrequent to say the least.

Chance of "Delay Repay" even for a delay that was nearly 2 hours, using services advertised on the railway's network map?  Zero.  "That's bus" and "you didn't buy your ticket ahead of time".



Having written the above - I remain in some doubt as to the whole "compensation culture" ethos; I will claim more on principle to help add financial weight to the encouragement to public transport operators to provide the service they "promise" in their timetables, and on the basis of which people choose to travel with them.

[johnneyw]

I have to give credit where it's due with the way GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) handled my delay repay. All processed and confirmed in just a few days. There seems to be a system in place that works.

[CMRail]

There needs to be an improvement for those travelling with a monthly or annual season ticket - a discount trigger doesn’t cut it. Spending thousands a year to save a little bit off the next purchase isn’t exactly a good system.

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, mostly very positive, especially the speed at which claims are processed.  The quicker it extends to apply to monthly and longer seasons the better.

[paul7575]

There needs to be an improvement for those travelling with a monthly or annual season ticket - a discount trigger doesn’t cut it. Spending thousands a year to save a little bit off the next purchase isn’t exactly a good system.

Almost every other delay repay scheme does include longer term seasons, and users then have to claim for individual disrupted journeys at a pro rata fare for each single disrupted journey.  Discounts against passenger charter punctuality and reliability figures, and void days are then removed.

For some reason GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) decided against this.

Paul

[Oxonhutch]

I have an annual season ticket and for the past five years ( ) have recorded the arrival times of my morning trains into Paddington.  On a 30 minute delay - the old weekly system - I am well ahead with the 5% (last year 10%) rebate I have enjoyed for each of those years. Even with 15 minutes, DR would not have benefitted me.