A Consuming Experience

I just got a two quid voucher from London Underground for a Tube delay that happened in Nov/Dec last year. It's only good towards a Tube ticket (or train journey including a Tube leg), but it's transferable, so I could sell or give it away. Not many people bother claiming for Tube delays. Granted, two quid isn't much - but at least I feel I got a little something back from London Underground for the delay, and if more people claimed from them it would all add up, and might conceivably make them try harder to prevent delays. Well, one can always hope!

How to claim

So I'd encourage everyone to claim "if your Tube journey has been delayed for more than 15 minutes by circumstances within our [i.e. London Underground's] control". You can pick up a claim form from any Tube station, print a hard copy from their Website (Print PDF form and post your application (any Single/Return/Daily/7 Day ticket)), or even fill in a form online (if you have an Oystercard, Travelcard or National Rail Travelcard). I now keep a couple of forms in my bag/backpack ready, optimist that I am. (You can also claim for DLR - Docklands Light Railway - delays of over 15 mins outside of the DLR's control, which weren't services changes advertised in advance: claim form.)

Tip

With the Tube, the one thing you can rely on is trains regularly and inexplicably stopping/pausing at or between stations, so it may be a while before you realise that there really is more than the "usual" delay - but it's worth scribbling down the rough time it happened and the rough length of the delay (remember, they only pay for delays of over 15 mins. It might be getting a little obsessive to note down the time every single time it stops in case it lasts for longer than 15 mins, but hey if that works for you, and helps you feel better getting your own back on London Underground...).

Filling in the form

They also require you to tell them:

• the Tube station you started your journey from and where you intended to go
• roughly when you started the trip (presumably when you got to the first Tube station)
• the station at (or stations between which) the delay occurred, and
• the time the delay started and how long it was for.
  

I suspect many people don't trouble to claim because they just can't remember all those details, not surprisingly. So perhaps obsessive noting down would be no bad thing; after all, if there's a delay you're not exactly going anywhere are you, so you may as well use the time to fill in the form!

Plus you have to give full details of your ticket so if it's one which gets swallowed up by a barrier, you should note down which station ate your ticket too (or if you can, sweet talk the guard into letting you keep the ticket so that you can glue it onto the form in the handy ticket-shaped spot they reserve for it).

Send in the form fast!

Another point to remember is you need to send in the form within 2 weeks after the delay happened. And you can't hand it in at a Tube station (I guess again that would make it too easy for people to claim).

Don't let all the extra steps and info they require from you put you off claiming, or you'll be playing right into their hands. Someone I know makes a tidy sum just making sure never to overlook a potential claim. Let's all do it, and maybe make London Underground think a little more (or at the very least we can, and should, get a little something to make up for what they inflict on Londoners daily!).

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