Great Northern Delay Repay: How to claim compensation for late trains

Delay Repay is a national scheme that puts the responsibility on train operators to compensate passengers for delayed or cancelled trains.

Great Northern Delay Repay is applicable to journeys that arrive 15 minutes or more behind schedule, with travellers able to claim compensation based on the exact length of their delay and ticket type. Full details of the Great Northern Delay Repay scheme are outlined in the Passenger's Charter.

You can get a full or partial refund from Great Northern for delayed or cancelled trains up to 28 days after the date of travel. Great Northern pledges to respond to all Delay Repay claims within 20 working days, but claims typically take just 5 days, except at the busiest times.

Passengers should always submit a Delay Repay claim after arriving at their destination, in order to supply the most accurate delay details for their journey.

Every individual traveller must submit their delay repay claim for Great Northern Delay Repay, though there are some exceptions to this rule. Moreover, the operator warns passengers that submitting multiple claims for the same journey will delay receiving any compensation.

The easiest way to claim Great Northern Delay Repay is to apply online through the operator’s Delay Repay page.

There, you will be prompted to fill in your journey and relevant personal information, as well as to upload an image of your tickets or other documents (with a maximum file size for scanned images of 1MB each). You can also create an online account, where you can store your personal information, season ticket details and repayment preferences for any future Great Northern Delay Repay claims.

By submitting your claim online, you can also benefit from the full range of repayment options. For online claims, reimbursement methods include Amazon account balance, e-voucher, PayPal, credit or debit card (excluding Mastercard and AMEX repayments), National Rail vouchers or a charity donation.

Alternatively, you can download and print a Great Northern Delay Repay form from this page. Then send it by post, along with any supporting documents, to:

Freepost RUET-ZEJB-TKKZ

Govia Thameslink Railway

Derby

DE1 9RQ

As Great Northern will not accept financial information by post, the repayment options for postal claims are more limited.

Passengers who want to claim Great Northern Delay Repay can also speak to a member of staff at any Great Northern help desk. Note that all compensation requests are processed by the train operator you travel with, not with Trip.com.

How much will I be compensated by Great Northern Delay Repay?

With Great Northern Delay Repay, the amount you receive is paid as a percentage of the original ticket price. See the breakdown here:

For Season Ticket holders, the compensation due is calculated by first working out the value of each single journey your ticket covers, then applying the percentage above:

• Annual season ticket covers 464 single journeys
• Six-monthly season ticket covers 240 single journeys
• Quarterly season ticket covers 120 single journeys
• Monthly season ticket covers 40 single journeys
• Weekly season ticket covers 10 single journeys

Photo by Geof Sheppard

Passengers considering making an application with Great Northern Delay Repay can check recent statistics on the number of claims received and approved. The operator also provides data on the total value compensated and average time that applicants wait to find out the outcome of their claim. You can find more Great Northern Delay Repay data here.

From the dataset, it is clear that Great Northern is following through on its promise to notify passengers quickly about the outcome of their Delay Repay claim. These figures also reveal that for all periods, more than 70% of claims were approved, with most recording even higher success rates. Therefore, Great Northern is keeping its commitment to compensating passengers who have been inconvenienced by delayed trains.

Although Great Northern does grant compensation in the majority of cases, there are many reasons why your claim may have been declined. Regardless of the reason, Great Northern will include the justification when informing you of the outcome of your claim.

According to Great Northern, some of the most common explanations for turning down a claim are:

• You have claimed for a service that wasn’t scheduled to run on that date
• Your ticket was not valid for the journey you are claiming for
• You have claimed for a journey that Great Northern could not identify as being delayed by 15 minutes or more
• Your journey was delayed but this was caused by a different train operator
• You have submitted an identical claim
• You have already received the maximum compensation payable for a day’s travel.

Sometimes it can be confusing knowing whether you should make a Great Northern Delay Repay or get a refund from the retailer where you bought your ticket. As a simple rule, remember that if your train was delayed, disrupted, amended or cancelled and you DID NOT complete your journey, you might be eligible for a refund, which you will need to claim through the retailer who sold you your ticket. In contrast, if you completed your journey, and arrived more than 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time, you should submit a Great Northern Delay Repay claim.

• Don’t be too hasty when filling in a Great Northern Delay Repay form! By checking that all information in your claim is accurate, you reduce the risk of making any mistakes.
• On journeys that rely on more than one train operator, you should make your claim for Delay Repay compensation to the operator that caused the initial delay.
• Always upload a high-resolution scan or photograph of your tickets, so that Great Northern can check all relevant information needed to verify your claim.
• Remember to input the details of the journey you booked, not the journey you ended up taking (if these are different).
• Check if there were any planned engineering works on your day of travel that might have caused the delay.