Nottingham Robin Hood season cards - rights compared to a train season ticket

[Warlock]

Hi, long time lurker at the forum, any help would be appreciated.
Question regarding Nottingham Robin Hood Season Card, which is a multi-modal transport pass in Nottingham covering bus, tram and train travel.
The annual season card costs £845. Meanwhile an annual season ticket between Carlton/Netherfield and Nottingham (which is my daily commute) costs £820 according to EMR. EMR also offers additional discount for employees of my workplace making the annual difference £60-100. I wouldn't mind paying extra for more flexibility, but I am concerned about my rights as a passenger when travelling with the Robin Hood Season.

1. Am I eligible for delay repay? (for EMR and XC, which are both covered by the Robin Hood)
2. How would the delay repay amount be calculated? Would it be similar to that of a normal season ticket?
3. Would split ticketing work? Eg. If I am travelling from Derby to Nottingham, can I purchase a ticket from Derby to Beeston (the boundary station)? Does the train have to stop at Beeston?
4. If split ticketing works, how does delay repay work? Eg. If I am travelling from Derby to Netherfield, I purchase a ticket from Derby to Beeston. However, I do not hold a reservation/itinerary stating I would travel to Netherfield. Say my train is delayed at Nottingham and I miss my connection to Netherfield, can I claim delay repay for the entire journey? If I miss the last train to Netherfield and be stranded, will the TOCs help me reach Netherfield? Could they claim I never intended to travel to Netherfield and refuse to help me?
5. If delay repay works with split ticketing with Robin Hood Card, and I travel a long distance using split tickets, involving TOCs which don't run services within the Robin Hood area. Say I end up getting delayed by those "other TOCs", would they provide delay repay for the whole journey? (I'm particularly interested in Scotrail, LNER, Avanti and Northern)
6. If delay repay works with split ticketing with Robin Hood Card, does that still apply when I take an indirect/not-permitted route? Eg. Carlton to Sheffield is valid via Doncaster, but Nottingham to Sheffield is not. Say I would like to travel from Nottingham to Sheffield via Doncaster, purchase a Carlton to Sheffield ticket, and travel from Nottingham to Carlton using the Robin Hood Season. If I am delayed on my last leg from Doncaster to Sheffield, am I eligible for delay repay?

 

[Watershed]

Welcome to the forum!

The answer to these questions depends on the terms and conditions of the ticket in question. For most multi-modal tickets the answer would be that they count as season tickets for Delay Repay and split ticketing etc. purposes. However, the National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCoT) do have provision for non-stop split ticketing to be prohibited by a ticket's specific conditions (see condition 14.3).

Looking at the terms and conditions of this particular ticket, there is nothing to suggest any restrictions of this nature. It simply says that operators' conditions of carriage apply - so, in the case of a rail journey, the NRCoT. Nor is there anything to suggest that Delay Repay rights are limited or excluded, as for example West Yorkshire Metro purport to do.

Accordingly my answers would be as follows:

1) Yes - there is nothing in the Robin Hood terms, the NRCoT or either of those operators' Passenger Charters which would suggest otherwise.

2) I would suggest the same method as a normal National Rail annual season ticket, i.e. you divide the annual cost by 232 to determine a nominal daily value (the figure of 232 is based on 52 weeks equalling 260 weekdays, less the statutory minimum annual leave of 28 days).

Compensation is then paid based on the relevant percentage of this daily value, such as 12.5% or 25% for a 15-29 or 30-59 min delay, respectively. Note that XC and some other companies such as LNER and Hull Trains only offer compensation for 30+ min delays.

I can't really see any other sensible way of calculating it - the price isn't broken down by the constituent validity for each mode. In any event, you might want it purely for a rail commute from Carlton/Netherfield to Beeston as it's cheaper than the point-to-point rail-only season - so you can't necessarily assume someone would buy it because they want to travel on other modes.

3) Yes, that's fine. As above, there are no restrictions on non-stop splits under the ticket's specific conditions, so you can buy a ticket from Beeston or Carlton/Netherfield to wherever you're travelling, and pass through those stations without stopping.

4) So long as you meet the conditions for split ticketing (in this case, that your season ticket and other ticket(s) join up) then you have the same right to delay compensation as if you held a through ticket. In other words, it's the delay at your final destination that counts - even if you weren't delayed at all (or by enough to claim compensation) on the part of your journey covered by one of your tickets.

Not having an itinerary showing Netherfield doesn't matter - in your example, you would have valid tickets that would cover your Derby to Netherfield journey and that's all that matters. You just need to upload all of your tickets to the claim form. Many train companies' claim forms have now been improved so as to handle split tickets easily (they'll ask whether you have multiple tickets).

For those that haven't done so yet, you could either submit a claim "manually" to the relevant company's customer services, or add a screenshot/picture of all of the tickets and add in their combined value, with a "dummy" reference number if asked - such as 0 or 00000.

Compensation will be calculated based on the total value of your split tickets, using the usual rules for each ticket type. So, for single/return tickets you take the appropriate percentage of the ticket's value (12.5 to 100% depending on the delay) and for your season you use the above calculation of the daily value.

In terms of your rights in the event of disruption, again you are treated as making a single journey and thus you have the same rights to alternative transport etc. as a through ticket holder. The only difference is that, unless there is severe disruption, you still need to travel via your split point.

5) They might not necessarily know what it is, so you might need to explain it to them. But yes, it's a valid National Rail ticket and so you can claim compensation even if the company at fault (which you claim from) isn't EMR or XC.

6) Yes, that's fine. Permitted routes apply to individual tickets; it's not just permitted but mandatory to hold a combination of tickets if you want to travel via a route that's not permitted on a thought ticket.

 

[tram21]

Nottingham resident here- if you have the Robin Hood season ticket, if there's any ever disruption/ train times don't match up to your needs etc., you will be able to use the NCT 44 or Lilac Lines (depending where you live) right into the centre at a marginal time difference, won't you? Even if it is difficult to claim delay repay (I have an U19 RH Season and sometimes get the train, but have never attempted to claim DR because the money back would be so small, if its regular though it may add up!), being able to get into Nottingham alternative ways for free must be an incentive?

Whilst clearly the TOC needs to help you get to your destination, in practical terms if you know you miss the last train (which iirc is pretty early) won't you just get the bus back? Its not like you're trying to get to Elton & Orston!

 

[LowLevel]

Boundary stations are:
Attenborough (not Beeston)
Netherfield/Carlton
Bulwell (trains) Hucknall (tram only)

Split tickets are fine and won't cause any issues - XC and EMR are the only relevant TOCs in terms of the local journeys and both participate in the Robin Hood scheme.

Delay Repay won't be a problem for local journeys though will possibly require a manual claim, for longer distance journeys involving other TOCs it may be a bit trickier.

 

[Haywain]

for longer distance journeys involving other TOCs it may be a bit trickier.

For longer distance journeys you may well find that there is no saving to be made by buying from the boundary station rather than from Nottingham or another station within the fares cluster. If that's the case there is no point in complicating the matter by including the Robin Hood pass.

 

[Warlock]

Thank you everyone!


Thank you so much for the detailed response! I just opted for the Robin Hood season.