Passengers make one million claims in seven months over train delays

Govia Thameslink Railway passengers made more than a million compensation claims fordelayswithinasevenmonth period in 2018.

Customers using services run by GTR, in particular Thameslink but also Southern and Gatwick Express trains, suffered severe disruption due to cancellations and delays in the weeks following the massive timetable changes in May 2018.

Between April and mid October 2018 GTR received 1,059,514 claims through its delay repay system, which was more than a third of the entire totalacrossEngland,Walesand Scotland.

During the same period 1,036,575 claims were closed, with 910,529 being approved.

GTR had one of the highest rates in the country of closing cases within 20 working days.

The rail operator is one of several to offer compensation on delays between 15 and 29 minutes.

A GTR spokeswoman said: “Passengers deserve prompt compensation when trains are delayed.

“These figures from the regulator show that Govia Thameslink Railway, as the UK’sbiggestoperator,hasbeen able to deal efficiently with a very large number of claims last year.

“Our passengers benefit from a simple claims system which enables them to get their money back in as little as five days.”

The nationwide figures on the number of compensation claims for delays were released by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) on Thursday.

Stephanie Tobyn, deputy director - consumers at ORR, said: “This is the first time ORR has published data on the important area of delay compensation.

“Passengers have rightly madeclaimsforthesejourneys and it is good to see that train companies, in the main, are responding to these promptly.

“ORR will be meeting with all train companies later this month to review the current timescales for compensation claims, particularly where these are below target.”