Southwestern trains what to do?

[hadenough!]

The one who's there in the afternoons? I think he's a bit of a prick.

[Dizeee]

He always seems ok with me - have you had a run in?

[Panthro]

The Surrey lines are shocking. People who I work with that commute through Guildford etc have problems nearly every week. Whereas my line from Reading runs really well, never had any real complaints about their service.

[Dizeee]

The last few weeks in particular have been awful for SWT. Daily delays and cancellations causing misery for all.

[j4ck100]

If it's any consolation, I commute from Wokingham to Richmond with SWR and it's diabolical as well.

[kev1974]

Not really noticed any difference on the Hounslow Loop / Richmond services since the change from SWT to SWR (other than the gradual introduction of the nice new trains that were ordered under SWT) but then we are more of a suburban service with relatively short journeys involved.

More and more of the weekday services run into the ex-Eurostar platforms at Waterloo which is very pleasant, much calmer and quieter in that bit of the station.

Just wish we didn't have so many weekend closures especially Sundays, they seem to have been going on almost every other weekend for years.

[AlexRS2782]

I particularly liked the bit on London Tonight on Monday where SWR had released an announcement about the fact they'd be cancelling services, etc, in advance of any "possible" problems with inclement weather and that if people didn't want to get stuck in bad delays, etc, they should make sure they travel well before 6PM.

Yeah great, apart from the fact they released that statement around 5.45PM so it made f'all difference anyway

I'm currently keeping a close eye daily on the usual delays / reports to see what i'm likely going to have to put up with in 2 weeks when I have to go back & forth from Salisbury for a few days.

At least there doesn't appear to be any strike action planned any time soon*

• yes I've probably jinxed things saying that

[hurstg01]

I've just renewed my Annual Season ticket and, like previously, I was expecting to be told not just how much that ticket would be but also what refunds were sitting on my account due back to me since the last time I asked (August 2017) and those funds were usually given back to me upon renewal of the Annual Season Ticket, unless I bothered to ask in between times. From getting to the staff member to getting the funds took say 5 minutes, tops

oh no, that was far too easy for the big train company.

I now have to fill out a form, either online or by getting one from the station. If its online, I have to scan in my ticket and photo ID and fill out some other gumpf and wait up to 10 days for the BACS payment to reach my account.

fkers

Is it made harder to claim a refund on purpose in the hope that some people wont bother with the hassle? Not very customer-centric, is it?

[kingston12]

hurstg01 said:

I've just renewed my Annual Season ticket and, like previously, I was expecting to be told not just how much that ticket would be but also what refunds were sitting on my account due back to me since the last time I asked (August 2017) and those funds were usually given back to me upon renewal of the Annual Season Ticket, unless I bothered to ask in between times. From getting to the staff member to getting the funds took say 5 minutes, tops

oh no, that was far too easy for the big train company.

I now have to fill out a form, either online or by getting one from the station. If its online, I have to scan in my ticket and photo ID and fill out some other gumpf and wait up to 10 days for the BACS payment to reach my account.

fkers

Is it made harder to claim a refund on purpose in the hope that some people wont bother with the hassle? Not very customer-centric, is it?

It is certainly a bit sneaky. I think that the idea is that 'Delay Repay' replaces the existing compensation structure which was based on half-day outages being refunded whether or not they directly affected your journey.

Fair enough in principle, but in practise they know that people will forget to claim for most of them, or just not bother because it is such a small amount.

When I make a claim for a 15-29 minute delay, I get £1.20 paid into my bank account! It would actually add up to quite a lot over a year as I reckon I am averaging 3-4 claims a week at the moment, but I can imagine each individual claim won't be a priority for the majority of people.

SWR's predecessors didn't implement Delay Repay, so it is easy for SWR to make it look like a real customer care initiative, but I'd be very surprised if the total amount of compensation is anything like as high as it was before, even though the service has clearly declined.

[croyde]

I have just returned to living in London after living near Dorking the past 2 years.

Had no problems with SWT until last August and then it went all downhill since SWR took over.

In my job you just cannot be late. You are and you are out!

So when you can no longer expect a train to actually be there at the time in the timetable, the service is pointless. Having to aim for the train an hour before just in case was making my 25 mile commute last 3 hours on some days.

I was forced to move back to London.

[hurstg01]

kingston12 said:

It is certainly a bit sneaky. I think that the idea is that 'Delay Repay' replaces the existing compensation structure which was based on half-day outages being refunded whether or not they directly affected your journey.

Fair enough in principle, but in practise they know that people will forget to claim for most of them, or just not bother because it is such a small amount.

When I make a claim for a 15-29 minute delay, I get £1.20 paid into my bank account! It would actually add up to quite a lot over a year as I reckon I am averaging 3-4 claims a week at the moment, but I can imagine each individual claim won't be a priority for the majority of people.

SWR's predecessors didn't implement Delay Repay, so it is easy for SWR to make it look like a real customer care initiative, but I'd be very surprised if the total amount of compensation is anything like as high as it was before, even though the service has clearly declined.

I'm hoping that, as an Annual Season ticket holder, they have records from December-17 onwards of the trains on my route that have been delayed by the time needed for compensation so when I submit my Annual Card details they don't need individual instances of when trains were delayed

[kingston12]

hurstg01 said:

I'm hoping that, as an Annual Season ticket holder, they have records from December-17 onwards of the trains on my route that have been delayed by the time needed for compensation so when I submit my Annual Card details they don't need individual instances of when trains were delayed

I'd be interested to see how that goes. I was under the impression that the Delay Repay replaced the previous compensation altogether.

For me personally it actually worked out a bit better because my season ticket was always purchased through a third party so SWT always managed to wriggle out of giving me any compensation at all.

Most people will be worse off under Delay Repay, I hope you get it sorted out.

[edc]

kingston12 said:

I'd be interested to see how that goes. I was under the impression that the Delay Repay replaced the previous compensation altogether.

For me personally it actually worked out a bit better because my season ticket was always purchased through a third party so SWT always managed to wriggle out of giving me any compensation at all.

Most people will be worse off under Delay Repay, I hope you get it sorted out.

There is a section called compensation and refunds on the SWR website showing you the needed process to claim if you are s season ticket holder based on the date you bought your ticket.

[hadenough!]

If you uses raildar you can identify all delayed trains on your route. It's unfortunate that each time one of my possible trains has been delayed, that's been the one I was on... Unlucky...

[edc]

hadenough! said:

If you uses raildar you can identify all delayed trains on your route. It's unfortunate that each time one of my possible trains has been delayed, that's been the one I was on... Unlucky...

Indeed. Sometimes I've found I might have to work weekends too.

[ALawson]

Do you think that the barriers track your travel card which is cross referenced against a claim? I suppose just because I went through the WAT gateline in time to get the 16:39 WAT to FLE train doesn't mean I did wait until the cancelled 17:12 train!

[kingston12]

edc said:

kingston12 said:

I'd be interested to see how that goes. I was under the impression that the Delay Repay replaced the previous compensation altogether.

For me personally it actually worked out a bit better because my season ticket was always purchased through a third party so SWT always managed to wriggle out of giving me any compensation at all.

Most people will be worse off under Delay Repay, I hope you get it sorted out.

There is a section called compensation and refunds on the SWR website showing you the needed process to claim if you are s season ticket holder based on the date you bought your ticket.

Indeed. That is for the crossover period. Anyone who season ticket bought before 4th September 2017 is still entitled to compensation based on the void period rules. After that it is Delay Repay only.

It still doesn't explain why hurstg01 didn't get compensation automatically on a ticker bought before that date.

[hurstg01]

Well, I'm getting more and more frustrated with this online form - it expects me to know ALL the trains that I was delayed on and enter each one, one at a time, whereas before the implementation of delay-repay the system automatically knew which trains were relevant to the compensation required throughout the course of my Season Ticket

I feel a chat to a staff member at the local station is in order....

[edc]

hurstg01 said:

Well, I'm getting more and more frustrated with this online form - it expects me to know ALL the trains that I was delayed on and enter each one, one at a time, whereas before the implementation of delay-repay the system automatically knew which trains were relevant to the compensation required throughout the course of my Season Ticket

I feel a chat to a staff member at the local station is in order....

I did it weekly. I ran the raildar report and enter your normal journey times. Any trains that are 15 mins or more late within the time I might normally travel are fair game.

[hurstg01]

OK, so I was diverted to Customer Services after speaking to the guy at the station who was, as always, polite and helpful

Customer Services, due to the change in Franchise, have no way of bringing back records of delayed trains on my commute to and from work from the last time I claimed - 8th September by all accounts as that was when I had to get a replacement ticket as the ink had rubbed off my previous one from being taken out of my pocket at least twice a day from the start of March-17 until then - to today, despite the fact they could do this when I renewed my ticket in March last year at the station kiosk.......

The best the guy at the Customer Services department could do for me today was open a claim case and, as I was unaware of the change in the way to get refunds - why would I? I only renew my ticket yearly so have no need to enquire about a refund until renewal time - they will calculate the equivalent of 10 single trips on my commute and offer that as a refund. They have no idea of how much that will be until I receive their email. I have no idea if that will be more than what I would have had under the older system or less.