Claiming Compensation

My planned bus trip "around the county towns of England" is currently meeting with indefinite delay, whilst a domestic problem is resolved, but I haven't been completely idle.

On 15th March I visited Carnforth on the train to attend a meeting of the Lancaster Bus Users' Group, which I chair. Before anyone asks why I went on the train to a bus users' meeting, the meeting was held in a room at the railway station and not only is the bus stop for the return journey to Lancaster a long way up the hill from the station, but in the afternoons, when many buses are commandeered to do school runs, the bus frequency drops alarmingly making the train by far the better option. Or at least it would have been, had the return train not been cancelled, leaving me with 45 minutes to wait for the next.

Carnforth, of course, was the location for the station scenes in the 1945 film "Brief Encounter", where a married man and a married woman meet and don't have an affair! The film features many atmospheric scenes shot at the station, several of which show the station clock, which has become an icon for the film. Here's one of them, with Celia Johnson ("Laura") passing underneath

The clock as it appears in the film

After the station was de-staffed in the 1970s the clock eventually stopped working, but it has been restored and, following a very railway-like dispute over whose job it was to wind it up, now has pride of place in the station again.

The clock today.

If you are wondering why it  doesn't look as it did in the film it's because the filmmakers fitted a false face to prevent continuity errors when filming!

But back to my journey.  Northern Rail has a "Delay Repay" policy that states:

It therefore appears that I am eligible for "50% of the cost of the relevant portion of my return ticket, or a free single ticket to anywhere on the Northern network".  I'm not sure how Northern would calculate "50% of the relevant portion" of my ticket.  A Day Return (shown below) is an incredibly modest £2.20 with a railcard (for a 15 mile round trip!). But a single is £2.10!  This means that depending on how you look at it, the "relevant portion" of my return ticket is worth either £1.10 (half of the overall return fare) or 10p (the additional cost of the return journey over that of the outward leg). Fifty-per-cent of these would give me an expected refund of either 55p or 5p.  It was a no-brainer to choose the "single ticket to anywhere" option, which includes places as far away as Newcastle, Lincoln, Scarborough, Chester or Nottingham!

My ticket on the day.

Getting the compensation however has been a different matter.  I made the claim using the online form on Northern's website, which means I don't have a copy. However, I did receive an automated acknowledgement the same day that told me they would respond to my claim within 20 days. Having heard nothing, I sent a reminder on 17th April, which was not acknowledged. After a further fortnight with still no response I began to look to see how I could take it further. Buried away on Northern's website, very much in the small print, is a section on "complaints" from which it appeared that my best course of action was take the matter up with "Transport Focus"  - an official body that represents the interests of all transport users - road and rail.  Another web form was submitted and another acknowledgement received, this one telling me that:

As Northern (Arriva) have exceeded their advertised response time, we are chasing this with them to establish why a response has not yet been received. As soon as we receive an update from them, we will contact you again.

It remains to be seen whether Transport Focus will be any better at getting a response from Northern than I was. One would like to think so, but I'm not holding my breath. Since I made my complaint the following notice has appeared on Northern's website:

I'll let you know whether I ever get my free ticket - and where I go to.