TRAIN passengers can claim back the cost of this year’s fare increase under a new compensation scheme.

Anyone with a season ticket to travel on TransPennine Express (TPE) trains between October 1, 2019, and the end of the year will be eligible for a three percent rebate.

It comes as the company has struggled to hit cancellation and delay targets despite a 2.8 percent rise in fare costs which came into force at the beginning of this year.

TPE’s Managing Director, Leo Goodwin said, “We know that our performance was not up to scratch at the end of last year and for this we really do apologise We have experienced a number of issues following the introduction of our new trains, resulting in disruption to a number of our customers journeys with us.”

“I would like to thank our customers for continuing to travel with us and it is only right that we compensate them for the recent disruption. In order to improve performance, we have extended an amended timetable on our services between Liverpool Lime Street and Edinburgh for the rest of January. This will allow our services to recover and will provide some consistency for customers following the recent temporary disruption while we roll out our new fleet of trains.”

The compensation scheme will go live on Monday, January 13, and run until Saturday, February 29.

Information is available via the TPE website at www.tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/seasonticket-compensation.

This can be claimed in addition to delay repay, which entitles passengers to a refund for journeys delayed for 30 minutes or more.