Faq - refunds and compensation

Yes - if you have purchased a ticket and your train is cancelled or delayed, and you choose not to travel, you may return the unused ticket to the original retailer from which the ticket was purchased and you will be given a full refund with no administration fee being charged. This applies to all tickets including those that are usually non-refundable.

You must write to the original retailer or Train Company (from whom the ticket was purchased) to notify them of your claim within 28 days of the date that you intended to travel. If your ticket(s) to travel were printed on paper or card, the original ticket(s) will be required by the retailer.

If you purchased your tickets from the Chiltern Railways web site or App, the quickest way to get a refund is to log into “My account” check that the ticket you require is valid for a refund and click the refund button next to it.

If you have purchased an Advance ticket that is refundable due to cancellation and are seeking a refund please contact 03456 005 165.
If you are delayed on a Chiltern Railways journey by more than 15 minutes you may be entitled to compensation. You must make a claim within 28 days of travel.

To claim compensation either:
Visit the Delay Repay page.
or
Download the Compensation Claim form to complete and post it to the address on the form with the tickets you are claiming compensation on.
or
Collect a claim form from any staffed Chiltern Railways station and send it to us.

Visit our Compensation page for more detail.
These arrangements apply to services that are scheduled to be operated by Chiltern Railways. Different arrangements may apply to other operators. If you were scheduled to travel on the services of another train company, you should contact them (or visit their website) as they will be responsible for considering any claim. London Underground operate their own Delay Compensation scheme.
- Yes - if the timetable changed after you have purchased a ticket, and you choose not to travel as a consequence of that change, you may return the unused ticket to the original retailer from which the ticket was purchased and you will be given a full refund with no administration fee being charged. This applies to all tickets including those that are usually non-refundable.

- Season ticket holders should be aware that the timetable may change during the period of validity of their ticket. In such circumstances, compensation arrangements (such as for a delayed or cancelled train service) will apply in respect of a revised timetable.

How do I get my refund?
Refunds are obtained from the point of sale and you are therefore required to contact them for a refund.

If you purchased your tickets at a Chiltern Railways railway station, return them to the ticket office.

If you purchased your tickets from a third party i.e. the Trainline, please follow their refund process.

If you purchased your tickets over the phone return them to the below address.

Chiltern Refunds
PO BOX 6615
Arbroath
DD11 9AQ

If you purchased your tickets from the Chiltern Railways website, the quickest way to get a refund is to log into “My account” check that the ticket you require is valid for a refund and click the refund button next to it.

This will start a process which will refund the value of the ticket back to the card that you purchased the ticket with.

If you require any further assistance then please contact our Ticket Sales team on 03456 005 165 (option 1, option 2)

If you cancel your ticket more than 24 hours in advance of the date of travel or your train is cancelled due to disruption which is Chiltern Railways fault, we do not charge an administration fee to get a refund.

If you cancel your ticket less than 24 hours of the date of travel there is a £5 charge per ticket refunded.

Please go to the Contact us page for more information on Coronavirus related refunds.
Where possible, we will arrange a taxi or replacement bus for a missed last connection. If for whatever reason this isn't possible and you incur reasonable costs for your own onward travel, you may be able to claim back reasonable additional expenses to your final destination.

We (or the train company on which you were delayed) will consider these claims on a case-by-case basis. Write directly to us or the train company on which you were delayed to claim back reasonable costs for onward travel. Make sure you keep your receipt and your train ticket.
Please check our Passenger’s Charter. If you cannot find your complaint answered, write to us stating the details of your case. We will review claims on a case by case basis.

If you have paid for an additional service that you did not receive, then you will normally be entitled to a full refund of the additional charge and you should contact the Customer Services team. Where you did not pay anything for the service, you will not normally be offered a refund.
If you have paid for a First Class ticket and no First Class seats are available (or where a First Class carriage was advertised but not available), then you will be able to claim through the train company on which you were travelling for the difference in fare between your fare and a walk-up standard class fare for the same service.

Please note that occasionally a promotional or Advance First Class fare can be cheaper than the walk-up Standard Class fare and in these cases you may not be entitled to any money back.

Please note that currently we do not sell supplement tickets for travel in the Business Zone carriages that are available on a small number of our trains. There is currently no additional cost to travel in the Business Zone carriages. Please note that the Business Zone is not classified as 'First Class' and no refund will ordinarily be due should the holder of a First Class ticket choose to travel on our trains, as we do not advertise First Class as being available on any of our trains.
Only delays of more than 15 minutes qualify for compensation. Please visit our new Delay Repay page.

To receive the discount you must buy a new ticket within four weeks of expiry of the old one and it must be for the same journey and for the same or a shorter period. Unfortunately Season Ticket Renewal discounts don’t apply under this scheme for season tickets to/from stations between Amersham and London. (These tickets are available on both Chiltern and London Underground services. Rebate conditions for London Underground are set out on that company’s website https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/refunds-and-replacements.)
Compensation can be made via:
- Rail travel vouchers
- Charity donation
- BACs
- Credit card
You might have a statutory right to receive compensation via the method you paid. Should an acceptable method not be listed above then please call 0345 6005165 option 3 then option 4.
Where we have provided a service without reasonable care and skill, and it was our fault, the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) provides you with another way to claim for compensation (which will usually be money). The compensation you get under the CRA could be more than the price of the ticket, but you have to prove it was our fault.

The CRA does not apply if delays or problems are caused by external events that are not within our control or were caused by a third party.
If you are travelling as a consumer, the CRA provides you with certain rights and remedies where we are at fault, including the right to a price reduction (i.e. money back) where a service has not been carried out with reasonable care and skill. The relevant part of the CRA has applied to rail passenger services since 1 October 2016.

For more information about making a claim under the CRA, see https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights.

The CRA does not apply if delays or problems are caused by external events that are not within our control or were caused by a third party. Examples of events outside our control include vandalism, the striking of a bridge by a vehicle, line closures at the request of the police or emergency services, and suicides or accidents involving trespassers. This is a summary only of excludable reasons.
Under the National Rail Conditions of Travel, and our Passenger’s Charter, only in exceptional circumstances will we consider claims beyond the price of your ticket. We are not obliged under our contract to compensate you, but you may have a claim against us under the CRA.

Examples of exceptional circumstances that we may consider are:

If you have purchased and are using a valid ticket and are unable to complete your journey due to disruption, for example if you missed your connection due to a delayed train:

We will, where we reasonably can, provide you with alternative means of travel to your destination, or if deemed necessary provide overnight accommodation or a taxi home for you.

A train cancellation means you cannot make your last connection and you are stranded:

Where possible, we will arrange a taxi or replacement bus for a missed last connection. If for whatever reason this isn't possible, and you incur reasonable costs for your own onward travel, you may be able to claim back reasonable additional expenses to your final destination.

We (or the train company on which you were delayed) will consider these claims on a case-by-case basis. Write directly to us on this page or the train company on which you were delayed to claim back reasonable costs for onward travel. Make sure you keep your receipt and your train ticket.
In exceptional circumstances we may, at our discretion, consider claims for other losses beyond the cost of your ticket. If you wish to ask us to consider making a discretionary payment, please go to our Delay Repay page. Alternatively you can write to our Customer Relations team with details of your claim at:
Freepost Chiltern Railways
Please note that this does not affect your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act (CRA).
Please note: You cannot recover compensation for the same loss twice. If you recover money under the no-fault industry refund processes, you cannot claim the same amount under the CRA. But you can still make a claim under the CRA for any loss not recovered through the industry refund process.
All train companies have rail industry refund processes that work in parallel with the CRA, details of which are set out in the National Rail Conditions of Travel.

What you can claim for, and how much you can claim, is in the National Rail Conditions of Travel – you should also look at our Passenger’s Charter. If your train is delayed or cancelled, and you do not travel, you can claim for a full refund. If your train is delayed and you do travel, you may be entitled to compensation. The amount of compensation depends on the length of the delay and as agreed in our Passenger’s Charter.
If you are not happy with the response to your claim, you should contact our Customer Services team to review your claim.

Please also review our complaints handling procedure.

If you’re unhappy with the response you receive, you have the right to appeal to the Rail Ombudsman.

The Rail Ombudsman is there to help resolve on going complaints/disputes between us and our customers. It’s free to use their services and they are independent of the rail industry. They don’t take sides, but just look at the evidence available. They will help us both to try to reach an agreement, but if this doesn’t happen, they will make a decision based on the evidence they’ve received. If you agree with their decision, then we have to act on what they say.

You can appeal to the Rail Ombudsman if:
- you’re unhappy with our final response to your complaint which will be contained in a letter or email (sometimes called a ‘deadlock letter’); or
- we haven’t resolved your complaint within 40 working days of receiving it; and
- no more than 12 months have passed since we sent you our final response.
There are some complaints that the Rail Ombudsman won’t be able to look into, for example if it’s about the way one of our services has been designed, industry policy, or if your complaint relates to an event which took place before the Rail Ombudsman service was established.  If that’s the case, then they’ll contact you to let you know.  If possible, they will transfer your complaint to another organisation that may be able to help you further, such as Transport Focus or London TravelWatch – the independent consumer watchdogs for the rail industry.  They will independently review your complaint and where appropriate, follow things up on your behalf.

Website: www.railombudsman.org

Telephone:  0330 094 0362
Textphone:  0330 094 0363
(Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00)

Email:  [email protected]
Twitter:  @RailOmbudsman
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