Is it advisable to sue London Underground for 'signal failures'

[Fiona2011231]

The incident this morning makes me wonder if it is advisable to sue London Underground for being late.

Many people, including me, were late this morning when at least two lines, Central and Victoria, were delayed. Perhaps you agree that incidents like this happen a few times every week.

Does anyone think of suing London Underground, or should we be scared of their money and legal team? I suppose if we lose, we will have to pay their legal cost.

My sincere thanks,

There is no legal obligation for the underground to run at certain times.

Being late for work is just one of the downsides of using public transport

Wonder if it would be an interesting test case for the Office of Fair Trading to bring?

Offering to carry passengers on an advertised timetable and entering into a contractual arrangement (via the sale and purchase of ticket) but then repeatedly failing to deliver the advertised service by failing to maintain a reliable system is surely unfair trading.

Failures of signals are not in the realm of force majeur - such as when happens with major weather disruption. If a product we buy in a shop fails to work as specified or is damaged in some way we have an absolute right to return that good for replacement or refund.

There seems to be a general acceptance that rail and other passenger transport companies have no obligation to deliver the service as advertised and have an absolute right to cancel or delay passengers for any reason without proper recompense except through a lengthy and complex process of filling in a form and proving you were delayed.

In my view train companies and Underground would sharpen up their act if they knew a passenger could demand an immediate full cash refund from any ticket office straight on to their credit card for delays over 10 minutes due to signal or train failure (i.e anything but a declared national emergency, accident, strike or severe weather warning).

Are you sure that Tube outages are that frequent?

And as Tube tickets are accepted on buses and some overland trains during suspensions, the service (ie a form of transport) is still being provided.

If you were delayed by more than 15 minutes and the cause was within TfL's control you just need to fill in the form here.

You have to fill in a form, and you only get a single ticket refund.

They also say "it normally takes 21 days to process a refund. If you haven’t heard from us after 21 days, contact Oyster Customer Service Centre"

Most people will not bother as the cost and hassle of getting the refund is far beyond the value of their time you will spend getting it. TfL know that as does every train company.

Immediate automatic cash refund on the day as you pass through the barrier is what is needed - not requiring you to make a claim. They know the train has been delayed. They know you bought a ticket. They know you went through the barrier. They have all the info and technology to take your money as you wave your Oyster card at the pad so why not also automatically refund that way as well?

you only get a single ticket refund

That's all you would get if you took them to court (if you got anything).

why not also automatically refund

If I were TfL I would take the view that someone who can't be bothered to spend 5 minutes completing an online form clearly isn't that worried about getting a refund. Indeed, some people may not be bothered at all by the delay and may not want compensation. Why should TfL provide them with an automatic refund?