03.02.17
Southern Rail passengers reminded to claim compensation
Southern’s annual season ticket holders have been reminded that they are entitled to claim compensation due to the franchise’s poor performance over the 2016-17 financial year.
Last year, the DfT promised that Southern season ticket holders would be able to claim the equivalent of a month’s worth of fares in compensation for the disruption caused by industrial action and infrastructure development.
The reminder has come from London TravelWatch as Southern are unable to contact season ticket holders where the ticket is held on an Oystercard due to data protection legislation. These season ticket holders must go through a separate claims process on Southern’s website.
Janet Cooke, the chief executive of London TravelWatch, said: “We urge passengers who have suffered considerable disruption over the past year, to claim what they are entitled to in terms of compensation.
“The amount of compensation will range between £81 and £197 depending on the number of zones their Travelcard includes but where the Travelcard is held on an Oystercard, there is danger that many regular users of Southern will miss out on the compensation due if they do not put in a claim before the end of December 2017.”
Passengers’ claims for compensation from Southern had previously been held back due to computer errors after they were wrongly told that their claims fell out of the 28-day limit, which is being waived in this instance. However, the situation has now been resolved and passengers are being encouraged to complete the compensation process.
Southern passengers should be able to look forward to far less disruption as Southern’s owner GTR reached a provisional agreement yesterday with rail drivers’ union Aslef, the union whose strikes had enough power to cancel all Southern services on the network.
GTR has now moved onto resolving its dispute with the rail conductors’ union RMT as the operator has invited the union to meet for negotiation talks next week.
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