In the UK, sooner or later, you’ll run into a delay on the railways – lets not beat about the bush (especially as we go into Autumn and the leaf fall season where leaves on the line becomes a problem).
Many of the UK Train operators offer a “Delay-Repay” scheme, where you get refunded for delays on your travels.
Virgin Trains is introducing a new version called Automatic Delay Repay.
Virgin Trains Pendolino (train on the left) arriving into Birmingham New Street – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Where as before you had to submit a form and a ticket to the Virgin Trains to get a refund, you can now sit back and Virgin Trains will do it for you.
However, there’s a number of hurdles and conditions to meet:
- You must ticket on VirginTrains.com or with the Virgin Trains Mobile App.
- Automatic Delay Repay is only available on on Virgin Trains West Coast services (London Euston to West Midlands, Northwest and Scotland). Services from Kings Cross to the North East and Scotland operated by Virgin Trains East Coast currently do not qualify for this scheme.
- Automatic Delay Repay is only offered on Advanced Tickets ONLY at this point. Walk up tickets do not qualify for this scheme.
- Tickets which have more than one operator involved (eg, Virgin Trains and London Midland, Virgin Trains and ScotRail, Virgin Trains and Trans-Pennine Express) do not qualify for Automatic Delay Repay.
Virgin Trains is hoping to refund 3.5 million passengers to the value of £2.8 million over the life of the scheme – on top of what it refunds already.
For those new to delay repay, it’s actually pretty simple to see how much you’ll get refunded depending how long you’re delayed:
- 29 minutes or less – no refund
- 30 to 59 minutes – 50% refund of a single ticket, 50% of the relevant portion of the return ticket
- 60 to 119 minutes – 100% refund of a single ticket, 100% of the relevant portion of the return ticket
- 120 minutes or longer – 100% refund be it a single ticket or return ticket
Refunds will be paid back onto the payment card you used to make the initial purchase.
Whilst its possible to get refunds (and I have in the past on various journeys), the process can be convoluted depending on the train company.
Having at least one company to begin to automate the process is a great thing. For those who travel on walk-up tickets however, need to travel on other train companies or don’t book with Virgin Trains directly will still have to face the joy of filling in forms and sending in tickets for refunds…
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Cross Country trains let you put in a Delay Repay claim by email, provided you include a photo of the ticket. Details on their website – http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/customer-service/contact-us – look for the “Delay Repay” section near the bottom
Another good but little known thing – if you send in a delay claim to the wrong train company, they themselves will forward it on to the correct one for you. So, you can technically always take a photo and email your claim into Cross Country, letting them forward it on however is needed to the postal-only delayed company…
This is great! Amtrak should implement this process.. Oh wait, if they did they would have to sell off their equipment to pay all the claims.