The government has introduced new rules allowing passengers to claim compensation if a train is delayed by 15 minutes.
Correct. The scheme will be introduced on some rail services from 11 December and the government has said it will become a requirement for all rail franchises.
“The government has introduced new rules to ensure that rail passengers will soon be able to claim compensation if their train is more than 15 minutes late.”
David Lidington MP, 7 December 2016
In October the Department for Transport announced it would be introducing the ‘Delay Repay 15’ scheme. This will allow passengers to claim 25% of the cost of a single fare back if they experience a delay of between 15 and 29 minutes.
The scheme isn’t up and running yet, but will be introduced to Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services on 11 December.
It will then be rolled out on other services including the South Western, West Midlands and South Eastern franchises. The government has said that all rail franchises will eventually include a requirement to introduce the Delay Repay 15 scheme.
Under the existing Delay Repay scheme, passengers can get 50% of their single ticket refunded if they’re delayed for 30 minutes or more, or the full price returned to them if they have longer than 60 minutes to wait. Rail companies which aren’t covered by the Delay Repay scheme have to refund at least 20% of the price of a single ticket if a train is either 30 or 60 minutes delayed, depending on the company.
At the moment, if a train is delayed for less than 30 minutes companies don’t have to offer passengers compensation.
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