The rail minister has given his support to passengers who want to recoup costs such as taxis and hotels when train services are disrupted.
Jo Johnson acknowledged that some passengers do suffer additional losses due to delays or cancellations and said they should “claim accordingly”.
This is despite the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train companies, insisting it is “very unlikely” such claims will be successful.
The Consumer Rights Act, which came into force for the rail industry in October 2016, means passengers can theoretically claim from consequential losses – additional expenses – above the price of the ticket when a train service is not provided with reasonable care and skill.
But the RDG says this is “a very high legal hurdle to clear”.
It took until Sunday for rail companies to rewrite their conditions of travel to remove a warning that they will not accept liability for consequential losses.
Consumer group Which? found that firms have previously been incorrectly telling passengers they cannot make such claims.
Industry experts believe the issue – which could be hugely expensive for train operators – will end up in court once passenger groups launch a claim on behalf of passengers left out of pocket due to a severely delayed service.
Asked by the Press Association if passengers should be entitled to recoup money spent on taxis and hotel rooms, Mr Johnson replied: “There will be consequential impacts for passengers in certain circumstances and it’s right the conditions of travel are now making that clear to passengers, so that they can claim accordingly.”
He added: “In law they do have certain rights as consumers.”
The RDG encourages passengers to claim compensation through the delay repay scheme, which entitles them to payouts based on the length of delay, the type of ticket and the operator responsible.
It says the amount of compensation being paid to passengers has increased five-fold in the past five years to £74 million.
Alex Hayman, managing director of public markets at Which?, said: “It’s good to see the rail minister backing passengers who should be able to claim for reasonable out-of-pocket expenses when their train service has been disrupted and it is the fault of the train companies.
“Train companies can no longer hide behind misleading terms to avoid compensating passengers and should proactively inform people about their rights. If the rail industry fails to do so, then the Government and the regulator must hold them to account.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here