Transparency data

Rail passenger compensation paid by train operating companies

Updated 26 February 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/train-operating-companies-passengers-charter-compensation/train-operating-companies-passengers-charter-compensation

This page outlines compensation paid by train operators since 2016 in accordance with their passengers’ charter and including:

  • Delay Repay compensation
  • compensation paid under the traditional charter scheme
  • discretionary compensation

Compensation paid by train operating companies (TOCs)

Table 1: compensation figures for 2020 to 2025 in thousands of pounds.

Train operating company Passenger’s charter scheme type 2024/25 2023/24 2022/23 2021/22 2020/21
Transport for Wales Delay Repay 2,330 2,101 1,552 735 136
Avanti West Coast Delay Repay 40,476 32,914 25,206 8,366 1,068
Chiltern Railways Delay Repay and Traditional 1,156 697 346 106 52
Greater Anglia Delay Repay 2,894 1,959 1,787 844 178
West Midlands Trains Delay Repay 3,744 2,797 2,003 1,018 389
c2c Delay Repay 110 124 137 26 7
Cross Country Delay Repay 10,856 9,405 5,986 2,281 516
Great Western Railway Delay Repay and Traditional 29,658 28,857 15,823 6,315 779
Southeastern Delay Repay 4,300 4,766 4,843 1,133 366
East Midlands Railway Delay Repay 5,398 4,468 3,173 1,818 194
South Western Railway Delay Repay 8,250 5,994 3,437 2,131 272
Govia Thameslink Railway Delay Repay 5,792 5,184 5,343 1,920 294
TransPennine Express Delay Repay 4,234 4,371 4,242 1,294 130
LNER Delay Repay 28,044 32,817 25,979 11,193 1,909
Northern Trains Delay Repay 3,329 2,179 1,439 527 93
Total No entry 150,569 138,633 101,297 39,707 6,384

Figures before 2020/21 are available.

Additional context

Chiltern introduced DR15 on 1 May 2022. The total for 2022 to 2023 includes £12,000 paid under the traditional charter scheme between 1 and 30 April 2022, and £45,000 in traditional charter season ticket discounts paid from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

Great Western Railway moved its season tickets to Delay Repay on 1 April 2022. Traditional charter season ticket renewal discounts continued until 2021 to 2022.

Delay Repay

Delay Repay compensation has been introduced on all rail passenger contracts let by DfT. It is paid for whatever the cause of the delay and on all types of tickets. All the TOCs provide Delay Repay compensation for delays of 30 minutes or more and 13 of the TOCs also provide compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more.

The full Delay Repay thresholds are as follows:

  • 25% of the single fare for delays of 15 to 29 minutes
  • 50% of the single fare for delays of 30 to 59 minutes
  • 100% of the single fare for delays of 60 minutes or more
  • 100% of the return fare for delays of 2 hours or more

The figures for Delay Repay train operating companies (TOCs) cover compensation for all passengers arising from:

  • claims paid due to delays in journeys
  • other discretionary compensation payments made following complaints of poor service (for example, the train was dirty, the information screens were not working)

They also include compensation paid out on Delay Repay from 15 minutes (DR15) for the 13 TOCs that have introduced this scheme.

Compensation for delays of 15 to 29 minutes

In 2024 to 2025, DR15 compensation paid as outlined below:

  • Govia Thameslink Railway – £1,074,000
  • East Midlands Railway – £786,000
  • West Midlands Trains – £342,000
  • Southeastern – £713,000
  • Greater Anglia – £205,000
  • Avanti West Coast – £7,157,000
  • c2c – £9,000
  • TfW – £173,000
  • Chiltern – £59,000
  • Great Western Railway – £4,768,000
  • Northern Trains – £235,000
  • South Western Railway – £848,000
  • TransPennine Trains – £608,000

Traditional charter scheme

The figures for TOCs using the ‘traditional’ compensation system include:

  • claims for delays to journeys for single, return and weekly season tickets
  • discounts for season tickets valid between 1 month and 1 year, where annual performance falls below the trigger level
  • discretionary refunds for the value of a day or half-day of travel (known as ‘void days/void periods’)
  • discretionary compensation payments

Traditional compensation was only used by Great Western Railway and Chiltern, and stopped in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

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