Office of Rail and Road report reveals scale of train delay compensation claims

A report published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the regulatory body for Britain’s railways, showed that between April 1 and July 20, South Western Railway dealt with 185,280 claims while Govia Thameslink Railway, which includes Southern Rail, were subject to 236,807 delay claims. Govia Thameslink approved compensation in 83.5 per cent of cases while South Western Railway compensated customers for 81.7 per cent of claims. Great Western Railway, which has a limited number of services in and out of Portsmouth, also dealt with 87,213 claims.

Denis Fryer of Portsmouth who co-ordinates the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group, said: ‘I certainly think the number of delays are on the increase. These figures are not acceptable, there are quite simply too many delays. A high proportion of delays are down to infra-structure problems and there are now so many trains that if one is delayed it has a knock-on effect. The problem comes if you have a connection. A train which is three minutes late may result in having to wait more than 30 minutes for the next train.’