Rail compensation package announced for West Norfolk users

Regular passengers on rail services to and from West Norfolk will be able to claim additional compensation for recent travel chaos, the borough’s main operator has announced.

An interim timetable was introduced on the Great Northern route between Lynn and London at the weekend in a bid to address the problems caused by the introduction of a new schedule in May.

Now, the operator’s parent company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has confirmed that season ticket holders travelling to or from Lynn, Watlington and Downham, though it is likely to be some time before any payments are made.

Although the plan for further refunds was first outlined earlier this month, details of what it would involve, and who would be eligible, were only announced in a further statement on Friday afternoon.

Managers say the payouts will equate to the cost of between one and four weeks’ travel and eligible passengers will be contacted between now and the end of August.

The application system will then be opened on an unspecified date for passengers to lodge their claims.

GTR’s chief operating officer Nick Brown said: “We apologise to passengers for the poor level of services since the introduction of the May timetable.

“In recognition of this we will be refunding fares according to the level of disruption on Great Northern and Thameslink routes.

“This compensation is offered in addition to our usual Delay Repay compensation for journey delays of 15 minutes or more and enhanced compensation for season tickets holders.”

In order to qualify for the extra payments, passengers will need to have held a season ticket between May 20, when the new timetable was introduced, and July 28.

GTR says the package has also been agreed with the Department for Transport, which has been reported to be considering revoking its licence to run services over the timetable fiasco.

Last week, it was announced that GTR was also one of several operators who would not be implementing further planned timetable changes in December because of the current problems.

Instead, the company says it hopes to operate the full May timetable from then and to add services to the interim schedule before then if they can be done so reliably.