Getting the money you are owed

21 March 2016

“Our first priority remains to get you to work on time, but if we fail we will make sure we give you the money you are owed.”

c2c MD Julian Drury used these rather apt words today to announce that commuters on its services will now receive automatic compensation when their train is delayed.

Through its new automatic Delay Repay scheme season ticket holders and daily travellers will be able to receive automatic compensation without needing to fill out any forms or make a claim, even if their train is only delayed for a few minutes.

This is a great step forward and now is the time for this system to be introduced across all operators. Our research has found many passengers do not claim the compensation they are entitled to, so c2c’s scheme is to be applauded.

Our original research on delays and compensation showed that less than 15 per cent of passengers entitled to compensation for poor performance actually claimed. The main reason was that they didn’t know they were entitled to and didn’t know how to do it. We will be repeating this work soon to find out what, if any, improvements have been made.

Compensating passengers for delays that disrupt their lives will go a long way to restoring passengers trust when they are delayed and establish a better relationship with operators.