So it's taken them nearly a month to get the letter back to me, even though they claim they try to reply in 10 working days. It's 20 August today, when I received the letter, date-stamped 18 August and the letter itself dated 14 August. I know this incident was as a result of someone being hit by a train at Shenfield, just as we were about to pull into the station, but as people being hit by trains is a regular occurrence, they should have some contingency plans.
Case Ref: GA140805-BBUA
Dear Mr Collins,
Thank you for your recent Delay Repay claim following your disrupted journey from Chelmsford on 22 July 2014.
I was very sorry to learn that due to severe service disruption, your journey to Shenfield was significantly impacted upon. From the sentiments expressed in your letter, I do understand the frustration this incident caused and for this, I hope you will accept my apologies.
The delay that day was unfortunately due to a person being struck by a train. Due to the nature of such instances, it is very difficult to predict and therefore plan for the circumstances which arise as a result. We have no way of keeping alternative transport on standby for such occasions, and at short notice this is extremely difficult to arrange. Therefore, in many instances such as this case, we are left with no other option than to wait for the possibility of resumption of rail services. We must wait until the Emergency services have dealt with this sad situation. I can assure you that as soon as we are made aware of any information regarding the predicted length of delays this is passed on to customers using our information systems.
I also note your comments relating to the toilets on board this service, and it is with regret to inform that with these services, we do have a lot of issues with the toilets being out of use; the most common cause is vandalism or placing of unsuitable items in the toilet. Whilst we appreciate that it may be inconvenient for the toilets to be locked out of use, we would rather do this than cancel the service altogether. We would also have to consider the safety aspect of letting customers gain access to non-functioning toilets. Nevertheless wherever possible, we will always try to swap a train over if we have a spare unit available to prevent further distress.
Nevertheless I can certainly appreciate your comments, which is why I have now passed your concerns to our Fleet Department for their investigation.
Under the terms of our Passenger's Charter, ticket holders whose journey with us is delayed by 30 minutes or more are entitled to compensation. For a delay of between 20 and 59 minutes, we give back at least 50% of the cost of your ticket for that portion of the journey. For delays of one hour or more, we give double that amount.
As your journey was in this instance delayed by over 60 minutes, I have enclosed a rail voucher for £2.60 which you can use at any time in the next twelve months. You are welcome to use this towards the cost of any journey with us, or towards any other National Rail ticket purchase.
Once again, please accept my apologies for the disruption to your journey and thank you for taking the time to contact us.
Yours sincerely
Anne Froud
Customer Relations Advisor
Abellio Greater Anglia
I decided to include a scan of the letter as well as a typed up word for word copy in this blog. £2.60 for a delayed journey over an hour isn't much and doesn't really make up for the amount of time I was delayed.
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