A Rail Pain In The Neck

HERE is an account of my somewhat surreal dealings with LNER and the Rail Ombudsman after I caught a train to Newcastle on August 25 to play in Tim Wall's Northumbria congress.

The train was late leaving King's Cross, was held up for more than an hour in the Huntingdon area and eventually arrived in Newcastle at, by my reckoning, 14:57 against a scheduled arrival time of 13:39.

The driver or guard (on-board supervisor?) apologised for the delay and announced all passengers would be entitled to full refund of their ticket price, which in my case was £25.45.

I felt it was well worth applying for and so went through the rigmarole of making a claim, getting an automated response on August 26.

The following day I received this from LNER:

Thank you for getting in touch with us at London North Eastern Railway.
We are sorry to hear that your journey was affected by delays to our service and appreciate that it can affect your day.
Through our Passenger’s Charter, we’re committed to compensating every LNER customer who is more than 30 minutes late to their destination station because their train is delayed or is cancelled.
We’ve taken a look at your case and our records tell us that your train was delayed by 14 minutes on 25 August 2021 from London Kings Cross - Newcastle , so we’re not able to compensate you under our Delay Repay scheme on this occasion.
At LNER, we appreciate all the feedback we receive. It helps us to deliver a safe, reliable and high-quality service. Unfortunately, things sometimes go wrong, but please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.
Thank you for travelling with us and we look forward to taking you on more journeys in the future.

I replied on August 27:

Your records are incorrect,
My journey on Wednesday August 25 from London King's Cross to Newcastle was due to start at 10:30 and arrive at 13:39.
It maybe it only started 14 minutes late, but it arrived 78 minutes late as it reached Newcastle at 14:57.
If I do not receive compensation I will complain to the Rail Ombudsman.

I received no reply, so I complained to the Rail Ombudsman, whose office replied the same day:

Thank you for submitting your application form to the Rail Ombudsman regarding your complaint with LNER.
As part of our process, the Rail Ombudsman are only able to review a complaint if either:
- 40 working days have passed since the date you first raised your complaint to LNER, or
- You are in receipt of a deadlock letter for your complaint.
I note that 40 working days have not passed since the date of first complaint to LNER, therefore to enable me to review your complaint further, please could you provide me with a copy of your deadlock letter. A deadlock letter will state that if you are not satisfied with the way LNER has answered your complaint, you have the right to take your complaint to the Rail Ombudsman.
You can obtain a deadlock letter by contacting LNER, if you are not currently in receipt of one. You can upload your deadlock letter directly to the portal, or alternatively if you experience any difficulties, you can email it to assistantombudsman@railombudsman.org, quoting your reference number R141624.
If I do not receive this documentation, I will be closing your case on 02 September 2021, for administrative purposes.
We allow the Rail Service Provider 40 working days to attempt to resolve complaints to your satisfaction. I would recommend you contact LNER during this time to try to reach a suitable resolution.

I forwarded LNER's email to the Rail Ombudsman, whose office replied, again the same day:
Thank you for your message.
I have reviewed the documents you have uploaded and do not consider there to be a deadlock letter. A deadlock letter will state that if you are not satisfied with the way your complaint has been handled by the Rail Service Provider you have the right to take your complaint to the Rail Ombudsman.
With regards to your next possible steps, you may wish to contact LNER and allow them the remainder of the 40 working day period to provide a resolution for your complaint alternatively, you may wish to request a deadlock letter.
Without being in receipt of a deadlock letter, I am unable to proceed further and will be closing your case on 02 September 2021 for administrative purposes.
Please note, I am able to reopen your case upon you contacting us with a deadlock letter or once 40 working days have passed since the date you first complained to LNER.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.If you subsequently obtain a deadlock letter, or once 40 working days have passed after making your initial complaint, I will be able to re-open your case, upon you contacting us again.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

I felt I had already received a "deadlock letter," but I replied anyway:

Thank you.
I am awaiting a reply to my second email to LNER. If the matter is not resolved, I will ask for a deadlock letter.

On August 31, having heard no more from LNER, I emailed them:

To reiterate: my journey on Wednesday August 25 from King's Cross to Newcastle was scheduled to start at 10.30 but was delayed about 15-20 minutes.
It was further delayed for over an hour in the Huntingdon area because of signalling problems blamed on cable theft.
We arrived in Newcastle at 14.57 against a scheduled arrival time of 13.39.
If you disagree with these figures, please send me a 'deadlock letter' - the Rail Ombudsman says your previous email did not constitute a deadlock letter.

I also resubmitted details of my claim to LNER in the hope it would be seen by a different official from the person who rejected my original claim.

I heard nothing from LNER but on September 2 I received the following from the office of the Rail Ombudsman:

Further to my message, as I am not in receipt of a deadlock letter for your complaint, I will be closing your case for administrative purposes.
Please note, I am able to reopen your case upon you contacting us with a deadlock letter or once 40 working days have passed since the date you first complained to your Rail Service Provider.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

I replied the same day:

Since your previous email I have twice emailed LNER: restating my case and asking for a deadlock letter if they did not agree with my claim (pointing out that the Rail Ombudsman did not regard LNER's previous email to me as a deadlock letter).
I have not received a reply to either email. I do not know what more I can do.

Later the same day I received two further emails from the office of the Rail Ombudsman:

Thank you for your application, we have completed our investigation into your case which is now closed.

Thank you for submitting your complaint to the Rail Ombudsman regarding LNER (London North Eastern Railway).
On further review into the nature of your complaint, unfortunately this is out of scope for the Rail Ombudsman and we have been unable to transfer this to any other body that would be able to assist you further.
More details regarding out of scope complaints can be found in the Rail Ombudsman Consumer Guide by clicking here
We regret that we have not been able to assist you on this occasion and your complaint will now be closed with the Rail Ombudsman. However, if you require any further support, we would advise you to contact Citizens Advice on 0345 404 0506 who may be able to help.

I emailed the Rail Ombudsman on September 6:

Thank you.
I will do as advised, but I stated before LNER is not answering my emails, including my email asking for a dealock letter.

I received the following reply:

Thank you for your message.
I am sorry to hear that you are unable to get a Deadlock letter.
However, the Rail Ombudsman are bound by our scheme rules and so I am unable to put your complaint through before 40 working days have passed since the date of initial complaint without being in receipt of a Deadlock letter.
As such, if LNER do not want to provide you with a Deadlock letter, you will be forced to wait till 40 working days have passed before the Rail Ombudsman can investigate your complaint.
With regards to your next possible steps, you may wish to contact LNER again and allow them the remainder of the 40 working day period to provide a resolution for your complaint alternatively, you may wish to request a deadlock letter.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

That same day I also emailed LNER:

The Rail Ombudsman has asked me to repeat my request to you for a deadlock letter.
Thanks,

I heard no more from either body until receiving the following email from LNER on October 3:

Thank you for getting in touch with us at London North Eastern Railway.
We are sorry to hear that your journey was affected by delays to our service and appreciate that it can affect your day.
We’ve taken a look at your case and are pleased to inform you that a BACS payment to the value of £50.45 has been raised and will be with you in the next 14 working days.
The above amount also includes a £25.00 goodwill payment, we are very sorry your case was not resolved sooner.
Our records tell us that your train was delayed by77minutes on 25 August 2021 from London Kings Cross - Newcastle and, in keeping with our Passenger’s Charter, we’re committed to compensating every LNER customer who is more than 30 minutes late to their destination station because their train is delayed or is cancelled.
There’s no need to reply to this email, we’ll get your compensation to you automatically and any other correspondence could delay payment, but if you haven’t received it within 14 working days, please do get in touch.
Did you know that we have launched a service that repays you for your delayed train without you having to fill out a form? When you buy an LNER Advance ticket directly from our website, you’ll be able to sign up to One-click Delay Repay. If your train is then delayed by 30 minutes or more, we’ll notify you automatically to claim your compensation with one click. For more information, please visit our website here.
At LNER, we do our best to deliver a safe, reliable and high-quality service every day. Unfortunately, things sometimes go wrong, but please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.
Thank you for travelling with us and we look forward to taking you on more journeys in the future.

The £50.45 from LNER was paid into my bank account on October 15 while I was playing at Calvià, Mallorca.

All's well that ends well, I guess, but I am far from happy with the behaviour of either LNER or the Rail Ombudsman's office.