Claiming Compensation Update

The Lesser-Spotted Northern Train

The story so far:

On March 15th I was delayed coming home from Carnforth by a cancelled train. The delay to my journey was such that I became entitled to compensation of "50% of the price of the relevant portion of your ticket" or a free ticket to anywhere served by Northern Railway.  Because it was such a short journey the most I could expect financially was just 55p so on the same day I submitted an online claim for the free ticket.

On April 17th, having heard nothing from Northern I sent a reminder email.

After a further two weeks without a response I contacted Transport Focus and asked them to help, which they promised to do.

Yesterday I heard from Northern. In an email addressed both to "Dear Sir/Madam" and "Dear James Davies" they said:

Thank you for your correspondence in respect to the Northern service on 15 March 2018 with our reference DR-2959-9596. We are very sorry for any inconvenience and will process your claim as quickly as possible. We will notify you again once your claim has been reviewed. Delay repay does not in any way limit or exclude your other legal rights to compensation as a consumer where we are at fault, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or otherwise. Should you have any further queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact us again at complaints@northernrailway.co.uk

Kind regards,
Northern

Given Northern's abysmal record in cancelling trains at the moment due to having forgotten to train enough drivers on new routes and new trains in time, I've no doubt they are accumulating complaints far quicker than they are dealing with them, so it may be a while yet before I get my free ticket.

Incidentally, this whole business of training train drivers on new routes and new trains amuses me. When I became a bus driver (admittedly many years ago now) we trained and passed our test on one type of bus (usually the oldest in the fleet) but were then deemed competent to drive any of the company's buses including brand-new ones that appeared from time to time. And as to routes, we were expected to go anywhere we were needed to - and if we didn't know the way we were expected to just ask the passengers!

I'll let you know when (if) the ticket arrives and where I go.

Thank you for your correspondence in respect to the Northern service on 15
March 2018 with our reference DR-2959-9596. We are very sorry for any
inconvenience and will process your claim as quickly as possible. We will
notify you again once your claim has been reviewed.

Delay repay does not in any way limit or exclude your other legal rights to
compensation as a consumer where we are at fault, under the Consumer Rights
Act 2015 or otherwise.

Should you have any further queries or concerns then please do not hesitate
to contact us again at complaints@northernrailway.co.uk