C2C - changing the cost of refunds.

If you travel by train, then the amount of money you may get back in the future may be a lot less than you were expecting and all thanks to C2C.

C2C, who operate the line between Southend & the capitol, have decided to change the way it compensates people when their train is delayed.

At the moment, a train user can claim back between 20% & 50% of their train fare (depending on the operator) if their train is delayed from 30-60 minutes. C2C are rolling-out a new scheme whereby all the train tickets will be smart tickets and the ticket user will 'swipe' themselves on/off the train, thus logging their journey. If the train is more then 15 minutes late, C2C will refund a measly 2p per minute back to the ticket for future use.

C2C's spokesman was bigging-up the idea by stating that it was a 'win-win' for the traveller (whilst forgetting to mention that 60 minute delay would only cost them £1.20 compared to the £4 they would have to refund on the cheapest current fare).

Now, the rail regulator is going to see how well the scheme with a view rolling it out across all the rail networks in order to help the operators save paying-out £millions to their train users for having to put up with their shoddy service.