Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with train operating companies on improving the claim process for compensation for delays; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

We urge passengers to claim the compensation they are entitled to. When delays occur, we expect operators to make sure their passengers are informed about how to apply for compensation.

We are committed to improving compensation for delayed rail passengers. As the Chancellor stated in his Autumn Statement, we are committed to reducing the time threshold for which passengers can claim from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.

We welcome the trial by c2c of automatic compensation to be introduced on the c2c franchise for registered customers if their train is delayed by more than 2 minutes. We welcome the introduction of automatic compensation on Advance tickets bought online, currently available on Virgin Trains West Coast and to be introduced as part of the Northern and TPE franchises and we encourage operators to make sure passengers across the country benefit from schemes like this.