Northern Railway

We aim to provide the best possible service for our passengers. Unfortunately, delays do occur from time to time and we understand the frustration and inconvenience this causes. We want to take every opportunity to extend our apologies and compensate you fairly.

Our Customer Promise provides for compensation to customers who are delayed by 15 minutes or longer on their journey, through our Delay repay scheme. If you completed your journey by train or by alternative transport provided by Northern.

Claim Delay Repay

The compensation due varies based on the length of the delay you suffered and the type and cost of the ticket you travelled with.

Compensation in Free Northern tickets

Customers can also request to be compensated in the form of one or more free tickets for use on any Northern service. Please the below table for further details.

Delay Repay Compensation for season ticket holders** Please note if you are travelling on a complimentary travel voucher and you suffer a delay of 60 minutes or more we will provide a replacement complimentary ticket.**

Season ticket holders are also eligible for compensation at the same level as other ticket holders. The cost of the ticket for the relevant journey is calculated by pro-rating using a typical number of journeys, as shown in the table below. The amount of compensation is then calculated as for a single ticket.

For example, for a delay of 20 minutes, on a season ticket costing £100 per week, the cost of the ticket for the relevant journey would be calculated at £10, and a 20-minute delay would qualify for 25% compensation. So, the compensation available through Delay Repay would be £2.50.

Season ticket passengers delayed for 30 minutes or longer are also eligible to be compensated in free tickets – see the paragraph above for more details

Making a claim

In order to make a claim you will need to upload an image of the ticket that you used for travel. Please ensure you retain your ticket and if exiting at a station with ticket barriers please ensure you ask a member of staff to let you through to prevent the ticket being retained in the barrier.

For mobile tickets please ensure the ticket price is visible on the image you upload. If the ticket has expired and no price is visible then please upload the booking confirmation email as well as the ticket image so that we can process your claim. All claims must be made within 28 days of travelling.  

We recommend all customers register for an account on our Delay Repay portal – this is managed by a third party, so you will need a separate account to the one you have on our website or app. Once you have created your account you can track the progress of your claim to completion.

Compensation can be paid by one of the following methods:

• A refund directly to your bank account or a credit / debit card.
• A free ticket for a Northern service if the delay exceeds 30 minutes.
• National Rail travel vouchers that can be used to purchase a ticket at any ticket office.
• A cashable voucher for claims with a value of up to £50 that can be exchanged for cash at a Northern ticket office.

If you did not complete your journey by train or alternative transport provided by Northern click here for more information.

Delay Repay

For more information, check out our frequently asked questions.

One Click Delay Repay

Our new ‘One click’ delay repay scheme has been created to make the claim process easier for our Season Ticket Holders. You can now use your online delay repay account to claim on your favourite journeys with your saved season ticket, making a claim as simple as one click.

Additional terms to note: If we publish an alternative timetable (for example for engineering works or during prolonged poor weather) we will compensate you based on that. In the case of season tickets, any compensation will be calculated against the proportional daily cost of the price of the ticket.
We are currently not in a position to offer Delay Repay compensation for multi-modal travel as we do not control the terms and conditions of these tickets. We have been in discussions with our client, Rail North Partnership, and they are committed to providing a seamless travel experience to all passengers between different types of transport and different operators; we will be working closely with them to achieve this.

Your legal rights

The levels of compensation described above relates only to Northern's Delay Repay and compensation policy. It does not in any way limit or exclude your legal right as a consumer under laws such as the Consumer Rights Act 2015. In accordance with your legal rights as a consumer you may be eligible to a different level of compensation where Northern is at fault in accordance with laws such as the Consumer Rights Act 2015. If you are unsure if this applies to your journey or believe that it does apply to your journey please contact our Customer Experience Centre on 0800 200 6060. We always consider each claim made to us on its individual merits. For more information on the Consumer Rights Act and how it applies to the railway industry please click here