I posted on 21st November 2022 that I had submitted Delay Repay claims to 3 separate companies following a series of highly disrupted journeys during Storm Arwen. I’m pleased to announce Scotrail is the winner in having the money back in my bank account within 12 days. They also had the simplest and most straightforward claims process. Next came TPE, also in 12 days, but in second place because they had the most onerous claims process requiring the user to set up a new account just for Delay Repay, which is separate from the TPE account for purchasing tickets, meaning it took a few days for me to actually find the time to create the account and submit the claim. And in third place is CrossCountry, taking 38 days, but this period straddles Christmas so if we deduct 10 days for the Christmas break, that still leaves them at an unacceptable 28 days. Particularly frustrating with TPE is that for my claim to them, the tickets were bought through them, for travel on their own train only, and the train was cancelled. The refund really should have been automatic (as is the case with LNER). Scotrail confirmed the claim was valid and would be paid within 3 days, but sadly then took a further 8 days to actually make the payment. Someone needs to tell the train companies about the banks’ “Faster Payment” service, which gets the money into the recipient’s account within 2 hours.
