RAIL passengers will get a legal right to cash compensation for delayed trains under new compensation rules, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
Overnight hotel stays and taxi journeys to destinations will also be guaranteed in law under the EU regulations, which could come into force within three years.
Although some train operators already offer cash compensation and overnight stays to
stranded passengers, they are done voluntarily and on a case-by-case basis.
About a third of the 30,000 complaints received by train operators in Scotland each year relate to delayed or cancelled trains. A common gripe among customers is that they are not informed of what is happening while they are stranded or delayed.
No publicly available statistics show how many trains in Scotland run late by an hour or more. Published tables currently only show delays of upwards of 30 minutes. Almost a tenth of sleeper services to Scotland fall into this category.
The plan has been drawn up by the European Commission and will impose minimum compensation rights across Europe. They are expected to come into force in the UK from 2010 as part of a bid to get more people on to the trains by improving punctuality.
Under the new rules:
• Passengers on trains running at least one hour late will receive at least 25% of the price of their ticket as compensation;
• For a two-hour delay they must get a minimum of half their ticket price back;
• Passengers will have the right to give up on a train journey after waiting an hour and get their full fare back;
• Passengers delayed by more than an hour will have to be offered food and refreshments;
• If a late-running train causes a missed connection and leaves travellers stuck then they will have to be put up in a hotel;
• Taxis must be provided to passengers to complete their journeys where delays leave them no other option and within a limit of 50 km (31 miles).
Exemptions will be applied in certain circumstances "which could not be foreseen" by the train operator. Such cases might include delays caused by a suicide on the track, extreme or exceptional weather, or a passenger mischievously pulling the communication cord.
If services are delayed but the train operator blames the delay on the body running the track infrastructure, then the operator must compensate the passenger and try to reclaim the money from the other organisation.
Passengers' groups have welcomed the move. Christopher Irwin, the European adviser for Passenger Focus, the government-funded independent consumer watchdog that pushed for the new rules, said: "This is very good news for passengers. It introduces a number of new rights and establishes them in law.
"The right to receive money back rather than vouchers is important because it will mean that incurring delays will have a direct cash impact for the operators. And the right to refreshments and accommodation is very significant."
A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland said: "It is good news and better and more reliable rail connections are vital for both consumers and for businesses. We just hope that the cost of these new compensation deals will not be passed on to passengers in the shape of higher fares."
A spokesman for ScotRail, which operates most trains north of the Border, said: "We do already have compensation schemes and we shall work with whatever legislation is brought forward. We are working hard to bring down the number of delayed and cancelled trains and our performance is at its best since 1999."
About nine out of 10 ScotRail trains run within their targets, typically meaning within 10 minutes of schedule. But a sleeper train can be 30 minutes late and still be defined as running to its target time.
In March, rail strikes led to the cancellation of thousands of trains in Scotland and delays on many of those which did run. Under the incoming rules, the operator would have to pay compensation for trains cancelled due to strike action.
In 2005, a senior rail watchdog member ended up in what he called a "disastrous" journey after the train carrying him broke down north of Inverness. He finally arrived home at his destination in Thurso over an hour behind schedule.
Al Christie, of the Rail Passengers Council, said at the time: "I got the idea at the meeting that there was hope for the future but First ScotRail obviously have a long way to go."
A spokesman for the European Commission in Brussels confirmed that the new rules had been drawn up, but the Commission then refused to answer any detailed questions on the measures because they will not be formally passed until later this autumn.
The plans have still to receive their final approval from both the European parliament and from the EU's governments, although the governments have already agreed the package in principle.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport in the UK said: "The anticipation is that this will be passed, and following that step it will be implemented in full in this country."
The EU's biggest nation, Germany, has announced that they will bring in the new regulations from next year.
The full article contains 876 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
