Research and analysis

Rail delays and compensation 2025

Research with rail passengers on awareness, experiences and behaviours around compensation schemes from the latest fieldwork in March 2025.

• From: Department for Transport
• Published: 26 February 2026

Documents

Rail delays and compensation 2025

PDF, 948 KB, 66 pages

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Rail delays and compensation 2025: technical report

PDF, 1.02 MB, 41 pages

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Details

This report shares results from the latest research with passengers about rail compensation schemes, conducted in March 2025. Previous research on this topic was conducted in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2023.

The report covers:

• the proportion of rail passengers that claim compensation when they are eligibly delayed
• rail passengers’ awareness of their eligibility to claim compensation
• rail passengers’ experience when claiming compensation
• the reasons why some passengers choose not to claim compensation

Data was collected from members of an online panel, using a quantitative survey.

In total, 11,007 passengers were surveyed. Of these, 4,775 passengers had experienced a delay eligible for compensation and were asked further questions about this delay.

Of those who had not experienced an eligible delay, 500 passengers were asked questions on their general attitudes to claiming.

Published 26 February 2026