The All New Megathread

[garynortheast]

I claimed a refund while I was sat on the train John! The annoying thing is that TfW will have to pay it, whereas it should by rights have to come from Network Rail as it was their problem which caused the issue.
I'm told by someone who works for Network Rail that the signalling system between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton was upgraded at great expense last year. Well, that worked well then.....

[admin]

I wonder if TfW can claim it back from Network Rail?

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[redtrummy]

And Network rail claim it back from their contractors?

[garynortheast]

Bloody hell, it's just 8.20pm and I'm already thinking about going to bed! I'm sure it's to do with the time of the year.

[garynortheast]

Morning orgers. Early start to drive over to Newtown this morning. Have to drop the car off for the front suspension to be looked at. It's not going to be cheap!

[Craig380]

Fingers crossed!

[garynortheast]

I already know the bill is likely to be around £300. Possibly more.

[garynortheast]

Hope that's the last of the car repairs for a while now. I really don't need any more repair bills!

[Ruffy]

OK, In case I've not declared it previously, I currently work for Network Rail. Whilst my contract means I have to be careful what I put on social media, I'm happy to help explain some of the things that happen where I can, and maybe also help to stop incorrect myths being perpetuated. It's all unofficial but I personally promise that I will post honestly in such cases - I'm not a PR bot!

I'm a bit late to this discussion point but maybe these additions will aid understanding a bit:

Originally Posted by garynortheast

...The annoying thing is that TfW will have to pay it, whereas it should by rights have to come from Network Rail as it was their problem which caused the issue...

I won't argue that it's a somewhat bizarre industry structure we have in the UK currently, but ultimately your contract for travel is with the train operator, so it's right that they compensate you in the first instance when they can't deliver for you.

Originally Posted by admin

I wonder if TfW can claim it back from Network Rail?

Yes they can, and they will. There are a number of industry mechanisms in place to deal with the interactions between industry companies - "Schedule 8" applies in this case.

But they're generally designed to hold each party whole for [hypothetical] long term financial performance, rather than deal with each event on a case by case actual loss basis. (The theory is to avoid a whole army of loss adjusters and claims litigators inefficiently spending masses of time, effort and money on many individual internal industry claim debates that would probably just net out in the end. We're not perfect but it could be a lot, lot worse. Imagine if each event were handled like a bike insurance claim!)

Originally Posted by redtrummy

And Network rail claim it back from their contractors?

Possibly, depending on when the project work was done, what the fault was, is there evidence to prove cause etc.

We do pursue losses against suppliers and 3rd parties where sensible but equally we don't waste time & money chasing cases where there's reasonably limited chance of success. I don't know the specifics for this one (it's not my route/region) and I'm not trying to shirk responsibility but it's also possible that the cause could have been externally triggered too - for example, unfortunately, there's a lot of theft of cables going on at present, and signalling system power supplies are vulnerable and are still regular 'victims'.

[garynortheast]

Thanks for that Ruffy, interesting information.

I guess an underlying gripe for me would be the fact that the whole rail network has become so fragmented with privatisation, and all needs bringing back into public ownership, so that there is some means of providing oversight and coordination of the whole setup.