For a UK rail delay, which train company do you claim compensation from?

According to National Rail, you need to claim from the company you bought your ticket from:

Refunds – General questions

4. How do I get my refund?

To receive a refund you must claim from where you bought your ticket. Your claim will be considered without undue delay and any compensation due will be paid within 14 days of your claim being agreed by the retailer.

5. How will I receive my refund?

You will receive your refund by the same method that you used to pay for the ticket, unless you agree to a different method of repayment. The retailer will pay the refund amount without deducting any administration fee.

It seems not to matter who you claim compensation from: there seem to be rules governing which company is held responsible for any individual passenger’s delay and, if you claim from the wrong company, they’ll pass your claim on to the right one.

At least, that’s what I infer from a situation in which, anticipating delays, I took an earlier Northern Rail train than I’d planned, which was indeed delayed. I made my the connection to the Cross Country train on which I had a reserved seat and then that train was delayed even more. I claimed from Cross Country and they passed my claim on to Northern, who compensated me.

I am aware of a UK website called Train Refunds (although have never used it).

TrainRefunds is a completely free service for commuters who are tired of poor performance and late running trains. There aim is to bring commuters together to make sure that you get the refunds that you are entitled to.

Their service lets users enter details of delays that can be claimed for. Every user has access to that information (every delay entered on every route) to make sure that everyone gets to claim.

They provide:

• Details of the train operating companies including their addresses, contact numbers and refund policies so that you know what you are entitled to.
• Access to be able to enter delays and see the delays that other users have registered.
• An email at the end of each week listing all delays on your route so you can make sure that you get to claim. You can stop the weekly email if you wish.

More info can be found here:

http://www.trainrefunds.co.uk/

I asked National Rail Enquiries about this, the part of ATOC (Association of Train Operating Companies) who provide timetable queries, and call themselves “definitive source of information for all passenger rail services on the National Rail network in England, Wales and Scotland”. Their website also hots the National Rail Conditions of Carriage which Andrew quoted in his answer.

NRE have come back with a rather vague answer:

I understand there were delays on two legs of the journey. You may contact
the train companies that operate services on the two routes, where there
were delays.  

Please use the following link to locate contact details of the train
companies concerned:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/

That would appear to say that you can complain to any company running trains over the part of the route where you suffered any delay! That didn’t sound correct, so I then asked another part of ATOC, and after checking with the Fares and Retailing team I’ve been given this answer:

We would recommend that a claim be made to either the TOC
that caused the initial delay, or where multiple TOC delays are involved,
the TOC which carried them for the longer part of their journey. In the
small number of cases where this is not obvious, the customer can choose who
they claim from but they can only claim under one passengers’ charter, and
will be subject to that charter for the calculation of any refund due on the
whole value of their ticket.

So, it seems there’s no definitive answer written into the contracts, and as a customer you do have a bit of a choice in the case of multiple delays. This means it’s worth reading through the different passenger’s charters carefully, to work out if one company pays more compensation for your delay than another!

Also, it’s worth considering how you claim – paper or online. Cross Country Trains operate on lots of routes, and allow you to claim by emailing them a photo of your ticket, cut in half, rather than forcing you to find a form that they’ve always run out of, and post it with your own stamp….

I cannot find a definitive answer, but the National Rail Conditions of Carriage are supposed to cover this. They say:

Where delays, cancellations or poor service arise for reasons within
the control of a Train Company or Rail Service Company, you are
entitled to compensation in accordance with the arrangements set out
in that Train Company’s Passenger’s Charter. This can be obtained from
the relevant Train Company’s ticket offices, customer relations office
and internet sales site.

I read that to say that it’s the company(ies) that were due to operate the train you were originally planning to get – in this case, A-C. I suspect you certainly have no claim against the C-D company. However, the usual law in the UK would, I think (IANAL), imply it’s the company you bought the ticket from, as they are the one you have a contract with. That’s certainly where I would start.

Another option is to contact your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau. They are normally helpful, and have an advice page here, but it doesn’t directly address this situation.