Delay repay with Freedom Travelpass?

[whole diary]

[mfpa]

Is Delay Repay the correct route for compensation for a late train when your ticket is a monthly Freedom Travelpass?

[grahame]

Is Delay Repay the correct route for compensation for a late train when your ticket is a monthly Freedom Travelpass?

Oh dear ... you appear to have drawn a blank on that question.    Bumping it up by following up - but I don't know.  If no answers follow this bump, you might get an answer by asking on Twitter.   (If you do, please let us know for th future)

[eightf48544]

What do you mean by a Monthly Freedom Travelpass? Where from and to?

If it's a monthly season ticket then it depends on the perfomance measures for punctuality and reliability overall for the service. If the moving average drops below a certain level you get a discount  of 5% for either falling below level or 10% if both.

But beware renewal has to be continuous otherwise you don't get anyting. i found this out to my cost when I retired and didn't renew my Annual Season . I didn't get any cash back despite haviing suffured a year of delays. Had I renewed the ticket I would have got the discount.

[stuving]

This is my reading of the situation (and it is based on reading what words I can find, not prior knowledge).

• I'm assuming the ticket is Travelwest's monthly go-anywhere pass, and the it was a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train that you want compensation for.
• The first point is whom to claim from. A simple statement of that should be given anywhere you might be looking, such as from operators or ticket sellers. However, it's notably missing from most of those. This is from NRE^‡(resolve):
  

  Each franchised Train Company has a Passenger's Charter which is a guide to the level of service you can expect to receive when using their stations and their train services.
  
  If the journey you have made, or are making, is delayed you may be entitled to compensation from the Train Operating Company or service provider.
  
  If a service is delayed and you choose not to travel, you may be entitled to a full refund from the retailer of your Ticket.
  
  Compensation
  
  The compensation offered depends on:
  
      Operator you travelled with;
      Ticket type;
      Length of the delay
  
  Each Train Company will publish the details of their compensation arrangements within their 'Passenger's Charter' and we have compiled a list of direct links at www.nationalrail.co.uk/tickets

• So in the case I'm assuming, it's GWR. Their passenger's charter says this:
  

  Compensation
  Two schemes apply:
  1. For customers with single, return or weekly tickets, GWR operate a Delay Repay scheme that provides compensation for any delay that is 15 minutes or more, irrespective of the cause.
  2. Customers holding a Season Ticket valid for a month or longer will remain on the existing discount-based compensation scheme.

• Based on that, this pass isn't covered by DR15, so you need to look in the charter for details of the older arrangements.
• The charter compensation scheme is designed for season tickets, based on the assumption that the ticket "buys" a return journey every day, and gives bulk compensation at the end of the term. (They even refer to it as their "discount-based" compensation scheme.) That doesn't fit the use of a pass directly - but the words do also refer to rover tickets.
• Strangely, the following words are in the section about DR15:
  

  For weekly tickets, compensation will be calculated using the proportional daily single ticket price of the ticket held: 1/10 of the total fare.
  
  For Rover tickets, the compensation will be calculated using the proportional daily single ticket price for the ticket held. We divide the cost of the ticket by the number of days it is valid for. For example, an ‘8 in 14’ Rover will be 1/8 of the total ticket price.

• Now, I don't quite follow what that means - is it saying the rover ticket price is split as if over one single ticket per day?
• In any case, I suspect GWR may not accept that as applying to passes for longer than a week (because that's what the words appear to say). There isn't a section heading for rover tickets lasting for more than a week. Of course they may also not accept the Freedom travelpass is (or is to be treated like) a rover ticket - but that would be equivalent to saying they sell and accept them but give no compensation; I don't think that is allowed (but I don't intend to read through the franchise agreement to try to find out). 
• The DR15 form (the paper one, I've not registered to use the online one), and all the instructions on the site, make the distinction between single, return or weekly tickets (DR15) and monthly or longer season tickets (PC). There is no mention of rover tickets or passes.
• So, on balance, I think you are right and you should apply for DR15. It looks like the form allows you to put in enough details, after which it would be a question of wait and see. And hope. And then, very likely, appeal.
• GWR are of course, in some sense, members or promoters of the Freedom Travelpass consortium. So you might reasonably expect that, by now, something about compensation arrangements would have made it onto the relevant web pages.
• Asking would make sense - but you'd need to get an answer from someone who knows! That's most often a question of getting to someone senior enough. If you do get a definitive answer, do let us know.

[mfpa]

I'm assuming the ticket is Travelwest's monthly go-anywhere pass, and the it was a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train that you want compensation for.

Correct on both counts.

So in the case I'm assuming, it's GWR. Their passenger's charter says this:

Compensation
Two schemes apply:
1. For customers with single, return or weekly tickets, GWR operate a Delay Repay scheme that provides compensation for any delay that is 15 minutes or more, irrespective of the cause.
2. Customers holding a Season Ticket valid for a month or longer will remain on the existing discount-based compensation scheme.

[/li]
[li]Based on that, this pass isn't covered by DR15, so you need to look in the charter for details of the older arrangements.

The way I read it, a monthly Rover doesn't fall under either of those two paragraphs.

For Rover tickets, the compensation will be calculated using the proportional daily single ticket price for the ticket held. We divide the cost of the ticket by the number of days it is valid for. For example, an ‘8 in 14’ Rover will be 1/8 of the total ticket price.

[/li]
[li]Now, I don't quite follow what that means - is it saying the rover ticket price is split as if over one single ticket per day? [/li][/list]

It looks like it to me. I hadn't seen that.

So, on balance, I think you are right and you should apply for DR15. It looks like the form allows you to put in enough details, after which it would be a question of wait and see. And hope. And then, very likely, appeal.

I applied for DR15. For a single delay of between 15 and 29 minutes I was awarded £48.00 compensation. That's a quarter of the price of my monthly ticket.

I entered an appeal for:- 
Appeal Reason: Other
Additional Appeal Details: The amount of compensation seems too high.

The Appeal was unsuccessful:

Thank you for submitting your claim appeal. We have carefully reviewed the information available to us and have upheld the original decision made.

I opted for rail travel vouchers as the payment method, and was gobsmacked to receive paper vouchers through the post.

[mfpa]

For another delay of between 15 and 29 minutes a couple of weeks later, my DR15 claim was declined.

Thank you for your recent Delay Repay claim submission. Unfortunately, we cannot complete your claim because the Season Ticket you submitted is valid for a month or longer and so compensation is based on whether we meet our punctuality and reliability targets instead of through the Delay Repay compensation scheme.

For more information on compensation for monthly or longer Season Tickets please visit https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/refunds-and-compensation/season-ticket-compensation

I entered an appeal for:-
Appeal Reason: Other
Additional Appeal Details: Your reason for turning down my claim talks about a Season Ticket. which is completely irrelevant. The ticket I submitted is not a Season Ticket. It's a Freedom Travelpass, which is a Rover ticket and does not qualify for Season Ticket compensation.

The reply came back unsuccessful and gave exactly the same reason. This second refusal includes:-

If you still believe we’ve made the wrong decision, or that you’ve given us the wrong information, please get in touch with our Complaints Handling team via reviewmycomplaint@gwr.com with the relevant details before

It gives you 60 days. The additional information in my email was:-

Because I did not submit a Season Ticket, I am now escalating my claim
to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Complaints Handling team. My ticket was a monthly Freedom
Travelpass (see attached) which is a Rover ticket.

The wording in GWR's passenger Charter it is unclear on what should be
the compensation mechanism for holders of a monthly Rover ticket.

    Two schemes apply:
   
    1. For customers with single, return or weekly tickets, GWR
    operate a Delay Repay scheme that provides compensation for any
    delay that is 15 minutes or more, irrespective of the cause.

    2. Customers holding a Season Ticket valid for a month or longer
    will remain on the existing discount-based compensation scheme.
   
Number 1 would appear to not fit because a monthly Freedom Travelpass
is not a single, return or weekly ticket. However, below the table
that shows length of delay versus compensation percentage, the second
paragraph describes how the proportional daily single ticket price for
compensation is calculated for a Rover ticket.

Number 2 does not fit because the Freedom Travelpass is not a Season
Ticket. I have used this ticket for my daily commute for over nine
years and on renewal have never been given a punctuality and
reliability discount or any void days.

My claim has now been Approved and a payment of £0.86 is on its way to me via National Rail Voucher, for which I'm to allow 10-15 days for postage.