A compensation scheme for Northern rail passengers affected by this summer’s timetable chaos has been extended to include regular travellers who do not hold season tickets.



The initiative, agreed between Transport for the North and the train operator Northern, allows passengers who faced mass cancellations and delays in May and June to claim for additional payouts beyond the standard claims scheme for individual journeys.

In the weeks following the bungled launch of its new timetable on 20 May, Northern cancelled up to 310 trains each day.

An interim report by the rail regulator published last week criticised the rail industry, concluding that “nobody took charge” when it became clear months before the timetable changes that the project was in serious trouble.

Under Northern’s compensation scheme, passengers must have evidence of travelling on at least 12 days in a 28-day window for the most disrupted routes, and three days in a seven-day window for the second tier of routes.



The amount of money that can be claimed through the scheme, which was previously limited to season ticket holders, varies depending on how much the route travelled was affected. Claims can be submitted for eight weeks from 9 October.



Judith Blake, the leader of Leeds city council, said: “While this extension is a positive step, compensation is only useful if it gets to the people who need it.



“Given the existing scheme has received less than half the applications expected, it is clear the rail industry needs to work much harder to make sure passengers know what and how they can claim.



“Although the compensation on offer is still not as comprehensive as I and other northern leaders have been demanding, I would urge all regular rail users to find out if they can make a claim.”



Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Transport Focus, the independent transport watchdog, said: “Transport Focus has long made the case that regular passengers – such as part-time workers – affected by timetable disruption deserve compensation.



“Widening compensation to non-season ticket holders who travel regularly is a welcome step in rebuilding passengers’ trust. It’s now important that train companies actively encourage passengers to claim and make it both quick and easy to do so.”

In August, the consumer rights body Which? called for automatic compensation schemes to be introduced across the whole network, saying there were “no significant technological barriers to doing so”. Under the current system only a few companies offer an automatic refund on a ticket bought with an electronic payment for a specific service.