Passenger Voice May 2016: Case Study

22 April 2016

Miss B enrolled on a degree course in London last year travelling two days a week from Norwich to London Liverpool Street with Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA). She bought a series of Advance tickets ahead of travel. Although she had checked the timetable ahead of this purchase, there were planned engineering works on this route. This delayed her by two to three hours on average every evening, bringing her into Norwich at 2am as opposed to her arrival time of 12.40am.

As Miss B was arriving home later than intended, she was losing a lot of sleep. Miss B also learnt that the engineering works would be taking place over the next 18 months. Due to the exhaustion and distress caused by this experience she was unable to continue her course and therefore finished her studies early.

Miss B contacted AGA in December 2015 in the hope that it would reimburse her for the 12 tickets she had not used. However AGA would not permit a refund as the engineering works were planned.

Unhappy with this outcome, she contacted Transport Focus outlining that she wanted reimbursement for the tickets as well as her course fees. Transport Focus agreed that AGA should have shown discretion on this occasion. Our advisor spoke with customer relations at AGA to see if a better outcome could be offered. AGA sympathised with Miss B’s situation and was prepared to give the case another look.

On reviewing Miss B’s university course details AGA was willing to offer £144 as a as a goodwill gesture. It also appreciated that Miss B abandoned her train journeys due to the engineering works and agreed to refund a further £72. Miss B was pleased that Transport Focus had helped her reach a better outcome and was grateful that AGA reconsidered her case.

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