A few weeks ago we covered the case of GC of London who had forgotten their disabled person’s railcard while on a Virgin West Coast train between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston. They had to buy two new tickets at full price (an eye-watering £201.85 each compared with £35.65 for the advance tickets with the railcard).
GC found their railcard at the end of the journey but, despite sending in a claim for a refund, was denied this by Virgin. The operator also refused to pay up after we intervened, saying it was company policy. However, the case triggered howls of outrage from other readers and the passenger group Transport Focus, and Virgin subsequently issued a full refund.
The Department for Transport has since announced changes to ticketing policy that give more flexibility in the cases of passengers who have made a mistake. These will come into force in March. Virgin has also changed its policy on its West Coast line (it was the case on the East Coast since the start of the franchise) and will automatically refund the cost of the new ticket if the person finds their railcard after the journey and takes it to their local ticket office.
A Virgin Trains spokeswoman said: “We are constantly looking to improve the experiences of our customers and understand that sometimes mistakes can happen, like forgetting or misplacing your railcard on the day of travel. In this situation, you will still need to purchase a new ticket to travel, but we have introduced a policy to refund the cost of the new ticket when customers take their railcard and proof of purchase for the tickets to the ticket office.”
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