If you’re one of the countless people who move out of London to settle in Hertfordshire or Essex, one very big change is your mode of transport. Instead of cycling or taking the tube, you’ve probably become a commuter who uses the overground train service. From Hertfordshire and Essex, on journeys like Broxbourne to Liverpool Street, your train company will be Greater Anglia. They actually have a pretty good performance record with only a small percentage of their trains delayed, but it’s still good to understand what you’re entitled to when they’re not running as they should be.

Get compensation if your train is late

Greater Anglia are signed up to the Delay Repay scheme (most train companies are, but not all). This is great news at it means you can claim compensation if your train is delayed by more than thirty minutes or cancelled altogether.

If your train is delayed by more than thirty minutes, you can submit a claim for 50% of the value of your ticket, or 25% of the value of your return ticket.

If your train is delayed by more than an hour, you can claim 100% of your ticket price or 50% of your return ticket price.

If your train is delayed by more than two hours, you can claim 100% of the ticket price, whether it’s a single or a return.

Claim back some of the cost of your travel card

Helpfully, the compensation scheme doesn’t just apply to one-off journeys. Most regular commuters have a weekly, monthly or annual travel card and you can actually claim a proportion of the price if your train is delayed by more than half an hour. For example, a weekly travel card assumes you’ll make ten journeys from and to your local station every week. This means that one journey is counted as one tenth of the cost of a weekly travel card, so you could claim either one tenth of the price or one twentieth, depending on the length of the delay.

It’s an interesting fact that, according to Which?, only one third of passengers entitled to compensation actually claim for it. My tip is to have your smartphone handy on the train (who doesn’t?) and to put I your claim through the Greater Anglia website as soon as you slip over into the compensation period.

Donate to the Samaritans

Great Anglia (knowing how some train delays can very sadly come about) also have an option on their website for you to donate the money you’ve claimed to the Samaritans charity.

Move from East London to Hertfordshire and Essex

Many Dockleys buyers are choosing to move from London out to Hertfordshire and Essex. If you’ve just become a Home Counties commuter, I hope you’ve found this blog about Delay Repay helpful. And if you’re planning to move from East London to the Home Counties in the near future, give me, Adam Dockley, a call on 020 3633 4440 and I’ll do all I can to help.