How To Claim a TFL Refund – Must Know, Must Do!

When a tube journey on the London Underground is delayed by 15 minutes or more, the traveller is entitled to a refund for their journey. Each year a whopping £34 million is owed to commuters, but only £2 million is actually claimed back. I will hold my hand up and admit I’m one of those individuals who is so relieved to escape out of the underground, after another painful, oh so lengthy delay that I don’t make a refund claim. How to claim a refund from Transport For London is something we should all do, something we all need to do.

Earlier on this week I wrote a blog post about the excellent Tube Tap app, which will automatically take care of the whole process for people with an iPhone. But what if you don’t have an iPhone, just how do you claim a refund from TFL for a delayed journey?

The good news is that making a claim for a refund isn’t as difficult as first feared. When you are sitting on the train and the announcement comes over the tannoy from the driver giving out the usual bullshit excuse as to why the train is not moving, take a note of the time. If you are held up for more than 15 minutes a refund could be coming your way.

Please note if the delay was for reasons out with TFL’s control you are not entitled to a refund – security alerts, third party action and bad weather are not the fault of London Underground. However, line faults, signalling failures, driver has went missing in action, door jammed, train has broken down and a 100 more excuses are valid reasons for receiving a refund.

When you have finally escaped from London’s hot fiery hell, you have 14 days to make a claim for a delayed journey. Why waste time, do it as soon as you get home. It will make you feel better! To make your claim for the delayed journey, it is quite simple really … all you have to do is fill out an ONLINE FORM which can be found on the TFL website.

If you are successful with your claim TFL will issue with a voucher for the amount you paid for the single journey. Having just filled out the form out myself this morning, it takes less than five minutes.

London has spent close to £9 billion on bringing the 2012 Olympics to London. I wonder how the already overcrowded and broken down tube system of this city is going to cope next summer with all those extra tourists … I know! It aint…

How to claim a refund from TFL is a piece of cake and quite probably the only way the service will get better. Well in theory it is. But this is London and inefficiency is normally solved by putting up the prices!!!

Related posts:

1. Tube Tap – A Must Have App For Londoners