ScotRail Delay Repay: How to claim compensation for late trains

As part of National Rail’s Conditions of Travel, passengers who experience delays of 30 minutes or more can get a portion of their ticket price refunded when travelling by train.

ScotRail Delay Repay is an easy-to-use compensation scheme that awards full or partial refunds to ScotRail passengers for delayed trains. Regardless of the reason for the delay, you can get some or all of your money back, so long as you hold a valid ticket for your journey.

Various factors explain why the amount you receive from a ScotRail Delay Repay claim could vary, from the length of your delay to the type of ticket you are travelling with. Remember to submit your ScotRail Delay Repay application within 28 days of your journey and follow the guidance set out in this guide to ensure your claim has the greatest chance of success.

To make a Delay Repay claim with ScotRail, complete the online form available on this page.

When claiming ScotRail Delay Repay, you will be asked to provide relevant details such as a scan or photograph of your Season Ticket and photocard, your Smartcard number (shown on the back of your card) or your paper ticket.

It is also possible to submit your claim with a paper form, which you can pick up from any ScotRail staffed station or download and print here. Pop it in the post, addressed to:

ScotRail Customer Relations

PO Box 27129

GLASGOW G2 9LH

When claiming by post, remember to factor in that ScotRail must receive your Delay Repay claim within 28 days of the delay.

Successful ScotRail Delay Repay claimants will be credited with vouchers that can be used to buy tickets for rail journeys across Great Britain. If you would rather have cash instead, you can exchange your vouchers at any ScotRail ticket office within 28 days of the voucher issue date. Alternatively, you can choose to donate your ScotRail Delay Repay compensation to charity.

If you have any further queries about ScotRail Delay Repay, you can get in touch with the Customer Relations team on 0344 811 0141 or through alternative methods as detailed on this page. You can also speak to a member of staff in person at any ScotRail staffed station.

Note: as Delay Repay applications must go to the train operator responsible for the delay, Trip.com cannot process your claim.

ScotRail compensates passengers who experience delays of 30 minutes or more. Naturally, the compensation due varies according to the length of your delay and your type of ticket, as follows:

For Season Ticket holders, the amount owed is worked out as a proportionate cost of one journey. This means that every journey is worth 1/10th of a Weekly ticket, 1/40th of a Monthly ticket and 1/464th of an Annual ticket.

To reassure customers that ScotRail delivers on its compensation promise, the operator provides a full breakdown of Delay Repay claim data:

From this table, it is clear that ScotRail does refund the vast majority of its Delay Repay cases. ScotRail also processes its claims in just a couple of days, which is faster than the average operator.

Photo by R~P~M

ScotRail investigates every Delay Repay claim it receives and will notify the claimant of the outcome of their submission. Included within this response will be a summary of the reason why the refund was denied should the claim be unsuccessful.

Here are some of the most frequent causes of Delay Repay denials:

• Your journey was delayed by another operator, not ScotRail
• You claimed for a travel day that had an amended timetable (i.e. you were told about the delay before you bought your ticket)
• ScotRail received your claim more than 28 days after the date of travel
• You gave inaccurate journey details in your application
• You claimed a ticket that was not valid for your journey
• Your submission did not have sufficient proof of purchase to verify your claim
• You claimed a journey that was not delayed by 30 minutes or more.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your claim, get in touch with ScotRail complaints via the ScotRail customer service team on this page.

If your ScotRail train was delayed, you might think that automatically means you should claim ScotRail Delay Repay. However, there are more ways to get a ScotRail refund – and there are specific conditions to claim Delay Repay.

Assuming that your train was delayed by 30 minutes or more, you should claim ScotRail Delay Repay only if you completed your journey. On the other hand, if you were forced to stop travelling midway through your journey (e.g. because of a cancellation) you will not be able to get ScotRail Delay Repay. Instead, you should check the conditions of sale of your ticket and contact the retailer you bought it from.

Compensation from ScotRail Delay Repay is not guaranteed and will be denied if you do not meet all the necessary criteria. To give yourself the best possible chance of success, follow these steps:

• Check that all the information in your claim is accurate and easy to verify.
• When filing your Delay Repay claim, remember to use the details of the journey you intended to take, not the journey you ended up taking (if these are different).
• Upload a high-resolution scan or photograph of your ticket(s), so that ScotRail can check the details match with their records of delayed trains.
• Check if planned engineering works on your day of travel could be the reason for changes to your journey; if ScotRail has introduced a temporary timetable, its Delay Repay guarantee will be based on those new times.

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