Tom Brake MP: Ending rail rip-offs must not be delayed

In the last few years, we’ve had to endure not enough drivers, countless signal failures, last minute cancellations, overcrowded trains, appalling customer service, the wrong kind of sunlight and an embarrassing ‘Delay and Repay’ scheme.

It feels that every day for thousands of commuters, myself included, our journeys to work become a soul-destroying struggle of waiting on a platform while a helpless announcer states that again the ‘Southern service to Victoria or London Bridge’ is delayed, followed by the half-hearted response that ‘Southern Rail apologises for the inconvenience’.

How does it make sense that passengers only get partial compensation for a journey that normally takes 30-45 minute into central London, if their journey is delayed by 30 minutes or more? That’s a delay equivalent to the total length of the journey…

No wonder that customers feel powerless and ripped-off at the moment.

That’s why today in the House of Commons, I am calling for a fair and simple change that will make a big difference to rail passengers. I am proposing 50% compensation of a single fare to be made available for a delay of 15-29 minutes, with 100% compensation offered for delays of 30 minutes or more as part of the changes to the ‘Delay Repay’ scheme.

I’m also calling for a drastic improvement in the way train operating companies advertise the ‘Delay Repay’ compensation scheme. According to the House of Commons library, the take up of compensation is low. In 2014, the rail regulator (ORR – the Office of Rail and Road) found that only 11% of passengers who participated in their 2013 survey of 1,000 rail passengers ‘always’ or ‘usually’ claimed compensation when they were delayed; 15% said that they ‘rarely’ claimed and 68% said they ‘never’ claimed compensation. A recent survey by Transport Focus in 2013, also found that 88% of those apparently eligible for compensation for their delay did not claim it.

These numbers are alarming and reinforce the view that train companies are not doing enough to inform customers of their compensation rights. In the last three days alone, I received 38 emails from Southern and Thameslink informing me of delays to the service but not a single mention of the ‘Delay Repay’ scheme. Under my new proposal, customers would have been compensated for some of these journeys.

I welcome the recent news that Transport for London is working with the Department for Transport to take joint control of London's suburban rail network. This is something I have been calling for since 1998. However, this still means we will have to wait until 2021 to see a real change and improvements in service.

This wait is far too long for passengers who have suffered a shambolic train service for decades. I hope that the Government will listen to my call for a fairer compensation scheme. This is a small change which will make a huge difference to commuters and is long overdue.

Tom Brake is the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington