Train companies
GWR Delay Repay: what Great Western Railway pays
Independent site, not a train company or claims service. You claim only through your operator’s own form.
The calculator above is set to Great Western Railway: change the fare, the ticket type or the minutes late and the GWR band and amount update straight away.
Great Western Railway would pay
£31
50% of the single fare paid
| Scheme | Delay Repay 15, from 15 min |
| Band applied | 30–59 min |
| From 60 min late | £62 |
| Claim by | 23 November 2026 (28 days left) |
Estimate from the scheme Great Western Railway publishes, read on 26 October 2026. The operator checks the train you were on and decides the claim.
Great Western Railway runs Delay Repay 15: if a GWR train gets you to your destination 15 minutes or more behind the timetable, part of the fare comes back. A single earns 25% between 15 to 29 minutes, 50% between 30 to 59 minutes and 100% from 60 minutes, so a £62 single that arrives 37 minutes late is worth £31. Each leg of a return counts for half the fare, and one leg 120 minutes late or more refunds 100% of it. Season holders get a stronger top band than the single column: 200% of one journey's value, a weekly being divided by 10 and an annual by 464. Claims must arrive within 28 days. In April 2025 to March 2026 the company received 1,443,270 claims and approved 82.5% of those it closed. GWR is still run by FirstGroup and is due to move into public ownership on 13 December 2026.
One journey on your season, by operator
Value used per journey
£10
| Divisor at Great Western Railway | 40 |
| 30 to 59 min late pays | £5 |
| 60 to 119 min late pays | £10 |
Schemes and rules read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
The GWR scale, applied to one fare
Great Western Railway publishes three columns: singles, returns and season tickets. The first two follow the common national pattern. The third does not, and it is where GWR stands out. Below, the bands are applied to a £62 single taken as an example fare.
| Minutes late | Share of a single | On a £62 single | Share of a return, per late leg |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 to 29 | 25% | £15.50 | 12.5% |
| 30 to 59 | 50% | £31 | 25% |
| 60 to 119 | 100% | £62 | 50% |
| 120 or more | 100% | £62 | 100% |
A return of £110 with an outward train 45 minutes late pays £27.50. If the homeward train is also 70 minutes late, the two legs together come to £82.50. GWR caps compensation at a full day's travel, so two claims on the same ticket never return more than you paid for it.
Season tickets: the 200% band
For a season, GWR first works out the cost of one journey: 10th of a weekly, 16th of a Flexi Season, 40th of a monthly and 464th of an annual. The band then applies to that cost. Up to 119 minutes the shares match the single column. From 120 minutes late, though, the season column reads 200% of a journey, the value of a full day's return, while several other operators stop at one journey. An annual season of £5,200 gives a journey value of £11.21; a 130-minute delay on it pays £22.41.
Carnets and rovers have their own rule: the price is divided by the number of days the ticket is valid, giving a daily return rate that the bands are applied to. The tool lower down compares the journey value of your season with the same season priced on another operator.
How an operator handles Delay Repay claims
Claims approved
82.5%
| Closed within 20 working days | 99.9% |
| Claims closed | 1,444,358 |
| Period | April 2025 to March 2026 |
Office of Rail and Road, Table 4410 (OGL v3.0). Where the ORR reports a group, the figure covers all its brands.
Automated notifications rather than automatic payment
GWR does not pay anyone without a claim, but it does start the process for some passengers. Opt-in notifications for Advance tickets bought on its website and for its smartcards. If you opt in with an Advance ticket bought on its website, GWR checks your booked train and emails you when it finds a qualifying delay; you then accept, amend or reject the claim. Pay as you go on its touch smartcard in the Bristol area works the same way, using your taps in and out at the end of the day, and so do seasons loaded on a GWR smartcard. A missing tap, or a tap at a different station, stops the alert, but a manual claim is still open to you.
One time-limit exception is published on the page read. After a cyber incident at Transport for London cut off access to contactless journey histories, GWR said that contactless passengers held up on the Paddington to Reading stretch could claim outside the usual 28 days, with a downloaded statement as proof.
Claim volumes and approval rates
The Office of Rail and Road counts GWR among the busiest claim handlers in Great Britain. Over April 2025 to March 2026 it received 1,443,270 claims, closed 1,444,358, approved 82.5% and closed 99.9% within 20 working days. In April 2026 to March 2027, on the provisional figures published so far, 574,602 claims arrived and the approval rate stood at 88.5% (ORR Table 4410).
Who runs GWR, and what changes on 13 December 2026
Its trains run west from London Paddington to Reading, Oxford, Bristol, South Wales, Devon and Cornwall, including the Night Riviera sleeper. The operator is privately run by FirstGroup today. The government's public ownership programme lists it for transfer on 13 December 2026. A change of owner does not by itself alter the scheme: the bands and divisors here are those GWR published when we read its page, which was an archived copy, as the source label states. The season ticket guide compares the GWR rule with other operators.