Southern, Southeastern and Abellio Greater Anglia top list of “claimable” delays: We’re missing out on thousands of compensation claims for delayed trains

Your train is late again. Do you sigh, grit your teeth and try to keep smiling or mutter to yourself that you should claim compensation, then promptly forget by the time you reach the office? 

 

The vast majority of us never claim for delayed or cancelled trains – 85 per cent in fact – and we are losing out hugely. 

 

Train passengers could have claimed compensation for delays and cancellations more than 8,100 times in the last 28 days, new research shows. 

 

Surprise, surprise: Southern – the operator of the Brighton to Victoria "train of shame" – has by far the worst record. Passengers could have claimed a total of 2,011 times over the past four weeks.

 

Next on the hit list is Southeastern, with 876 “claimable” scheduled train journeys. 

 

Both of these lines have come under huge criticism in recent months for the nightmare journeys experienced by commuters coming in and out of London Bridge. 

 

However there are plenty of other culprits too. Abellio Greater Anglia was not far behind Southeastern: passengers could have claimed 873 times, according to DelayRepay.net. 

 

How does your train fare? See the chart below for the worst performers in the last month.

 

 

Interestingly, although there is some similarity the correlation between these delays and cancellations and the number of angry tweets sent is not as high as you might expect. Looks like there are plenty of passengers putting on a stiff upper lip. But that also appears to be stopping us from clawing our money back. 

 

John Tipper, director of digital startup BlackKite Technology, which runs DelayRepay.net, a free automated service that is designed to help frustrated commuters recoup their compensation, told City A.M.: "The number of claimable trains is very high, yet 85 per cent of commuters never claim" .