Trainline say the new feature supports the government’s vision of a simpler and easier compensation process, where train travellers can quickly and seamlessly get money back for a delayed train.

With more than 1 million eligible delayed journeys detected over the previous 12 months, the new Trainline feature will alert travellers with Advance tickets when they are entitled to compensation for delayed rail journeys of more than 15 minutes.

Any customer who books through Trainline will be automatically notified via email if they’re eligible for Delay Repay compensation, with a direct link to the right form for their journey, making it easier to get their money back. The email from Trainline will also tell customers exactly how much compensation they’re entitled to.

Milena Nikolic, chief technology officer at Trainline, said: “Over £35m of eligible compensation wasn’t claimed in the past year and we wanted to understand why. We were amazed to discover that one in four Brits didn’t know they were entitled to compensation if their train is delayed and almost half have never made a claim before.

“We’re delighted to launch the brand-new Delay Repay feature which is designed to help more of our customers get the money back they’re entitled to and support the government’s vision of a simple and easy compensation process. It will proactively contact our customers to make them aware that they’re eligible for compensation and it even gives an indication on how much they can expect to receive.”

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Brits missing out on refunds

Trainline research suggests Brits are missing out on more than £1,200 every year by not claiming a refund they’re entitled to. It found the typical adult misses out on a product or service at least once a week.

Trainline surveyed 2,000 UK adults and found that three out of five (60%) Brits say they don’t like asking for a refund to providers of goods and services they have purchased and more than a third (37%) actively avoid doing so. A quarter (27%) say it’s because they don’t like confrontation, and one in five (18%) because the staff had been nice.

The study via OnePoll found that almost half (47%) of Brits have never applied for or received train delay compensation. A quarter (27%) of Brits didn’t know they were entitled to compensation if their train was delayed, with the majority (54%) not aware how late their train needs to be for them to be eligible. Just two out of five (42%) knew how to apply for compensation.