Delay Repay · Great Northern · checked 25 September 2026
Delay Repay with Great Northern
Great Northern pays Delay Repay from 15 minutes late at your destination, whatever caused it. You claim on Great Northern's own site within 28 days. Here is what it pays, what the form asks for and how Auto Delay Repay works.
At a glance
- Pays from: 15 minutes late at your destination, because a Great Northern train was delayed or cancelled, whatever the cause.
- Claim within: 28 days of the delayed journey.
- Where: greatnorthernrail.com, Delay Repay, online with or without an account, or by post.
- Automatic: Auto Delay Repay for Key Smartcard holders who sign up and touch in and out.
How much
| Late by | Single | Return | Season ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 to 29 minutes | 25% | 25% of the half you were delayed on | 25% of one journey |
| 30 to 59 minutes | 50% | 50% of the half you were delayed on | 50% of one journey |
| 60 to 119 minutes | 100% | 50% of the whole return | 100% of one journey |
| 2 hours or more | 100% | 100% of the whole return | A full day's travel (two journeys) |
A single is paid as a share of what you paid for it. For a return, Great Northern pays on the half you were delayed on up to an hour, then on the whole return fare. Season holders are paid a share of one journey's value, worked out below.
Season tickets
One journey's value is the ticket price divided by 10 for a weekly, 40 for a monthly, 120 for a quarterly, 240 for a six-monthly and 464 for an annual season. A flexi season is its price divided by 16, and two hours or more pays two journeys.
Seasons and travelcards are capped at a full day's travel a day, so only one two-hour claim counts per day. Create an online account and upload the season once, and later claims take less typing.
How to claim
Claim online after you arrive. You can claim without an account. An account keeps your details and season ticket and opens every payment option; e-vouchers need one. The online form takes up to three claims in one go, with one image each, which is how a parent claims for children. Otherwise each traveller claims for themselves.
By post, the paper form goes to Freepost RUHE-TXXU-GHHA, GTR, Derby, DE1 9RQ. Postal claims are paid in National Rail vouchers only.
GTR aims to reply within 20 working days and usually does in about five.
What the form asks for
- Paper ticket: the ticket or its receipt, or a screenshot of the order showing the ticket type, date and price. Seasons need a photo of the ticket and the photocard.
- eTicket or barcode ticket: the ticket number (UTN) or an image of the ticket.
- Key Smartcard: the card number. Another company's smartcard: its number and the receipt for the ticket on it.
- Oyster or contactless pay as you go: the TfL journey history showing the date, where you touched in and out, and the cost.
- The journey you meant to take: stations, date and booked departure, not the train you ended up on.
How you are paid
Bank transfer, PayPal, an e-voucher (with an account), cashable National Rail vouchers, or a donation to Samaritans or Railway Children. Auto Delay Repay can also pay to a Visa card. You cannot change the method once the claim is in. If an electronic payment fails, a voucher comes instead.
Auto Delay Repay
With a Key Smartcard, sign up for Auto Delay Repay in your online account and touch in and out on Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern or Gatwick Express. When a journey is 15 minutes late, a claim appears in your account and you get an email within 48 hours. You still press claim, check it and pick a payment method within 28 days.
It does not work when one journey uses more than one ticket on the card, or when a change of train falls outside the station's minimum connection time.
Cancelled trains and missed connections
If your train was cancelled, the delay is how late you arrived. Tell the form which train you actually took; otherwise GTR works it out from the next train you could have caught.
Claim only from the company whose train caused the first delay. A missed connection is paid only if you left enough time to make it and hold one through ticket for the whole journey. With a combination of tickets for one journey, the whole journey is compensated.
If you decide not to travel because of the delay, or give up and go back to where you started, you can have a full refund from wherever you bought the ticket, with no admin fee.
Worth knowing
- A day ticket pays its full price back once. An open return allows only one two-hour claim, even if you travel on different days.
- Common reasons for refusal: the train was not in the timetable, the ticket was not valid, no 15 minute delay was found, another company caused it, the journey was already claimed, or the daily maximum was reached.
- Losses beyond the fare, when the service was not run with reasonable care and skill, can be claimed up to the price of your ticket, but not twice for the same money.
- Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and Gatwick Express belong to one company, GTR, and share this scheme, its form and its Freepost address.
Platted keeps the record for you
Platted keeps every journey you take with it for 13 months, with what a claim form asks for: the date, the stations, the booked and actual times, how late, why, and the operator. Each one copies with a tap. When a train arrives late enough to claim, Platted tells you once, then once more a week before the window shuts.
You claim on the operator's own site. Platted does not claim for you, sends the operator nothing and takes nothing from what you are paid.
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Related: Thameslink, Southern, Gatwick Express. Every other operator is on the Delay Repay page.
Checked against the Delay Repay page on greatnorthernrail.com, Auto Delay Repay and the GTR Passenger's Charter on 25 September 2026. If Great Northern changes its rules, its own page is right and this one is out of date: tell us at [email protected].