Major change to Delay Repay scheme and rail cards for train passengers

Here's what you need to know

This is part of a trial to crack down on ticketing fraud starting in April, the Department for Transport has announced.

The plan, the department says, will save £20m a year in lost revenue, while preventing confused passengers from being prosecuted for fare evasion should the trial turn out successful.

Passengers will also find it easier to buy tickets from third-party retailers such as Trainline to claim compensation for late or cancelled services, under the Delay Repay scheme.

Once the new national rail operator Great British Railways is up and running, the plan is expected to come into force.

As it stands, all compensation claims have to be made directly with the train operator responsible for each service.

And this “creates confusion and frustration”, the Department for Transport says.

Passengers in the future will be able to request money back directly from whoever sold them their ticket.

This will bring third party retailers such as Trainline into the scheme.

The Office for Rail and Road (ORR) completed a review of rail companies' tactics for dealing with fare evasion last year.

It came to the conclusion that while train companies had been taking more robust action to counter an increase in fare evasion, passenger safeguards had not kept pace with the changes.

Ticket rules and restrictions could be complex, poorly explained and not widely understood, leading to passengers being penalised for genuine mistakes, it said.

This new system comes in response to several cases where the ORR said passengers appeared to have made genuine mistakes when using a railcard, yet were still pursued for fare evasion.

Railcard users in the future will have to complete what is described as a “simple verification step”, whether they buy their ticket online, at a machine or in a ticket office.

Passengers will automatically see the correct discount they are entitled to, once verified. Trials are due to begin later this year, on the Greater Anglia and C2C networks.

According to the government, the new scheme will help travllers feel confident they were purchasing valid tickets, while it will also prevent fraudulent use.

The changes would ensure people could claim compensation more easily, while ensuring taxpayers' money was invested in freezing fares and paying for train and station upgrades, rather than being lost to fare dodgers and fraud, the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.