Senior Railcard Moments July 2019

Our Bat & Ball correspondent, Keith Alderman, has now retired. However, when Thameslink allow him, he’s making good use of his Senior Railcard!

Delay Repay Claims: total 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2019 inclusive = £47.60
(Southeastern £23.70, Southern £2.00, South Western Railway £6.62, Thameslink £4.90, Virgin £10.38). One claim outstanding.

This month’s delays: total 89 minutes, Southeastern 52, Thameslink 37

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Delay Repay: sometimes it takes four attempts!

On Saturday 29 June I departed Wareham on the 16.31 service to London Waterloo where it arrived thirty-two minutes late at 19.21. Accordingly, I missed my intended train back from Waterloo East to Sevenoaks. The 20.30 to Bat & Ball was on time, but due to the late running South Western Trains service this was half an hour later than I should have been. Getting the right Delay-Repay has required me to make three appeals. This shows that what Transport Focus and others have been saying about the difficulty of claiming Delay-Repay and the arbitrary rejection or reduction of valid claims is, despite the assurances given, still not being addressed by the train operating companies.

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Delay Repay Delay

Last month I submitted a Delay Repay claim to Southern Trains in respect of a journey from Chichester to Bat & Ball. This was using an advance purchase ticket which clearly showed that it was only valid on the 15.40 departure from Chichester. I was very surprised that the claim was rejected because they could not identify the journey I was claiming against! I have resubmitted the claim with a very detailed breakdown of the journey and what train services I ended up using due to the train cancellation. It was paid but was it worth the effort for £2.00!

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Southeastern deserve a bouquet!

We were caught up in the disruption due to a fire at Ashford on the evening of 20 December. We had to take a taxi from Bromley South to Bat & Ball.

Unexpectedly our claim for compensation resulted in a long, personalised letter from David Eustace, Customer Relations Officer, explaining the difficulties of the evening, apologising for our experience and not quibbling about offering a full refund of the taxi fare. Give the man a bouquet!

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