Rail boss sets payout levels
●
FOLLOWING the recent chaos on the railways, Northern has announced an additional compensation scheme for customers who experienced delays and cancellations.
The scheme, which Northern says is ‘over and above’ the existing Delay Repay offer and has been developed between the Department For Transport and Transport For The North, will compensate customers on specific routes where more than 5% of trains have been cancelled or seriously delayed.
David Brown, Northern’s managing director, said: “During the past few months many of our customers have not had the quality of service they expect.
“We are really sorry for this and it is only right that those season ticket customers should be compensated for the disruption they faced.”
Since Thursday, July 12, season ticket holders who have travelled on routes which have seen most delays and cancellations have been able to submit their claims for compensation.
Northern has set two levels, recognising that some customers faced disruption to their journeys prior to the introduction of new timetables on May 20.
Level 1 includes those who hold season tickets and have faced significant disruption on certain specified routes between April 1 and June 30, who will be able to claim compensation up to the equivalent of a month of travel.
Claimants will need to provide evidence of four weeks of travel during this period on the specified routes.
This disruption was caused by the delay to the electrification of the Blackpool to Preston line, which meant Northern carrying out extra, unexpected training for more than 400 train drivers.
As a result, some drivers were unavailable to operate train services, leading to significant disruption on several routes across the North West.
Additionally, these routes were impacted by the May 20 timetable change.
Level 2 includes customers who hold season tickets and have faced significant disruption on specific routes since the timetables changed on May 20, for whom there will be compensation to the equivalent of a week of travel.
Claimants must provide evidence of one week of travel during this period on the specified routes (including stations).
This disruption was caused by the introduction of the new timetable on May 20.
Mr Brown added: “Customers have been affected by a number of issues during the past few months ... and, of course, the problems on some routes following the introduction of the May timetable.
“This compensation scheme aims to provide some recompense for those whose journeys have been impacted the most.
“Whilst the interim timetable we introduced on some routes has brought much needed stability and has delivered more certainty for our customers, we absolutely recognise the impact these issues have created, would like to apologise again, and assure all customers we are doing everything we can to improve services.”
To make a claim, customers will need to submit their claim via the Northern website by Wednesday, September 19, providing proof of travel.