RAIL passengers in Merseyside are missing out on compensation when trains are delayed because claim forms are not handed out, a committee of MPs warns today.
Northern Rail – which runs trains from Liverpool to Manchester, Wigan, Warrington, Chester and all across the North – is among nine companies criticised by the Commons public accounts committee (PAC).
Its report highlighted how the nine firms only made claim forms available to delayed passengers upon request – rather than distributing them automatically.
The MPs said that lack of information made it less likely that compensation was ever paid – in sharp contrast to Virgin Trains, which does hand out forms on the Liverpool to London line.
Across the country, delays were estimated to have cost passengers £1bn last year in terms of time lost, but compensation paid out by the rail companies totalled only £9m.
Edward Leigh, the PAC’s Conservative chairman, said: “There is no incentive for train operating companies to help passengers claim the compensation for which they are eligible.
“The Department for Transport does not monitor how much train operating companies pay out in compensation for delays, nor does it monitor how effectively they advertise their compensation arrangements.”
Northern Rail admitted that, until recently, it was up to its passengers to ask for a compensation claim form if their train was delayed, but insisted that practice had now changed.
A spokeswoman said: “Passengers are handed forms if the service over-runs. They can either fill in their details at the time and hand the form back to a member of staff, or there is a free postal service they can use.”
Merseyrail is also among the nine companies listed as handing out claim forms only on request, but a spokesman insisted the short distances between stations made any other policy impossible.
Furthermore, although there was a policy for compensating season-ticket holders, it had never been triggered because punctuality levels were high, the spokesman said.
The total amount of compensation paid out by Merseyrail last year was tiny (£3,417) in comparison with Northern Rail (£110,675) and Virgin Trains (£1,664,571).
Today’s report also criticises some train companies for failing to tell passengers why their train is held up for a long time, even though an announcement would be “reassuring”.
