Transport User Voice – March 2020 – Make Delay Pay

27 February 2020

Passengers still in the dark over compensation

Passengers still find it too difficult to claim rail compensation.

Our new research finds that many train operators still have complicated and lengthy claims processes and need to do much more to alert passengers to their right to compensation.

To increase the awareness of compensation our Make Delay Pay campaign has been running across rail station billboards, cinema and social media, encouraging people to claim the money they are entitled to.

A new survey of over 2000 people found just 3 in 10 of those surveyed were alerted by train operators that they could claim compensation for delays and cancellations.

Being alerted to compensation varied widely by train operating company; from 60 per cent being made aware when travelling on Virgin Trains (now Avanti West Coast) to 16 per cent travelling on Transport for Wales.

The report finds proposed schemes including a wallet function that allows smaller payments to accumulate and be redeemed at a later point, or the option to ‘swap’ compensation for complimentary tickets, would encourage more passengers to claim.

Transport Focus research found just 35 per cent of passengers who were eligible claimed compensation for their journey. Millions of pounds in compensation remains unclaimed from train operators every year.

We’re calling for:

• a national website portal for co-ordinating claims to standardise and simplify the process for passengers
• quicker and easier compensation process for passengers, with more choices about how they make a claim and receive the payment
• more automated compensation, so passengers don’t have to fill in a claim in the first place, and for the Government to name a date on when every passenger will be able to get ‘one-click’ compensation
• for every train company to offer Delay Repay 15 to bring consistency to compensation across the network.

More information is available in the report: Make Delay Pay: improving compensation for rail passengers.

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