Refunds on annual tax saver tickets

[Maire]

Hi,

I would like to find out about refunds on the proportion of an annual tax saver pass when a train is actually cancelled or the alternative bus service provided by Irish Rail is not adequate to take all passengers. I applied recently to Irish Rail when the above happened recently on the Waterford to Dublin morning service and received the grand total of €6 in travel vouchers!!

Thanks

[Mark Gleeson]

Unfortunately there are no provisions to provide refunds save where a delay of more than an hour occurs, even then its not a legal right.

Irish Rail and all land based transport are exempt from certain aspects of consumer law

39.—Subject to section 40, in every contract for the supply of a service where the supplier is acting in the course of a business, the following terms are implied—
( a ) that the supplier has the necessary skill to render the service,
( b ) that he will supply the service with due skill, care and diligence,
( c ) that, where materials are used, they will be sound and reasonably fit for the purpose for which they are required, and
( d ) that, where goods are supplied under the contract, they will be of merchantable quality within the meaning of section 14 (3) of the Act of 1893 (inserted by section 10 of this Act).

...

(6) Section 39 shall not apply to a contract for the carriage of passengers or goods by land, sea, air or inland waterway from one place to another within the State until such date as the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Transport, by order provides whether in relation to such contracts generally or in relation to contracts of a class defined in the order in such manner and by reference to such matters as the Minister, after such consultation, thinks proper.

EU law which will be applied within the next 18 months will grant the right of refund for persistent service failure to season ticket holders

A little know procedure is to appeal to the 'appeals committee' by writing to the Northern and Eastern Office Connolly (Waterford line is in there remit) stating you are unhappy and you wish to appeal to the appeals committee. Don't hold out much hope, but since there is no strike the responsibility lies with management.

[Mark Hennessy]

Hi Maire and welcome to the forum.

Mark, could you do a quick compare and contrast with the UK operators.
Am I correct in suggesting that they are more likely to offer refunds on delayed services?

[Mark Gleeson]

UK rules are 50% refund after 30 minutes

Failure to make the reliability target (typically 99% in the UK but 98% here) is a 10% discount on monthly ticket. Waterford line is below the 98% currently. We are keeping independent route by route charts since June 1st

Failure to make the punctuality standard, by being 3% or more short of it, thats a 10% refund

For annual tickets thats a 1% discount per month of a failure, up to a max of 10%, discount only applied on renewals, no cash option from what my research has turned up.

Irish Rail do not offer any discount to season tickets for target failures probably since they never have a target failure. Irish Rail have fabricated the statistics process and targets the numbers are always in Irish Rail's favour. Irish Rail have arranged a deal with the DOT which ensures no action taken against them

[tigger1962]

but on the enterprise you are entitled to a refund if the train is 30mins delayed? if an annual ticket holder gets this train can they claim refund?

[Mark Gleeson]

Enterprise is a special case of 25% after 30 minutes, internal trains in Northern Ireland are 50% after 30

You need to be a hour late before you can claim and thats annual ticket price / 420 and the refund becomes half that if less than 1 hour or the the full amount if greater than 2 hours

If your train is 59 minutes late every day for a year, you get nothing, or if more than 2% of trains are cancelled you get nothing

[thedailygrudge]

Amazingly in Japan, a train is considered late if it is over 60 seconds after the scheduled arrival time. You are entitled to a full refund and a letter to your employer explaining the reason you are late for work. I just find this amazing!!!

How far behind are we?

[Coolmine99]

yeah, saw that one Top Gear last week. The bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo was considered late if it got to the destination over 6 seconds. Feck