A frustrated commuter who took a train firm to court after claiming he experienced almost 200 delayed journeys in a year has been paid compensation.
Joseph Pochin, of Halesworth, sued Greater Anglia and alleged that he documented 550 journeys of which 183 were delayed.
He said this totalled around 28 hours of wasted time in 12 months, and that the majority of delayed journeys were late by between one and 10 minutes.
He took the case to the small claims court, which threatened to send in bailiffs to seize assets from Greater Anglia after it did not comply with a judgment to pay Mr Pochin £350.
Speaking previously about the delays, he said: “For the first few weeks there were several short delays, no more than five minutes, which I thought would be down to the weather conditions as it was winter time.
“There were then two major delays – one train cancellation meaning I was an hour late getting to work (07.12 train was cancelled) and the final straw was an hour delay heading home on a Friday night when the points failed at Woodbridge.
“I applied for the delay-repay compensation and received what can only be described as a paltry sum of £2.20.”
Mr Pochin, who works in Ipswich, has since received a cheque for £462 from Greater Anglia, which is the total plus costs.
Greater Anglia’s “delay repay” scheme only offers compensation for journeys delayed by 30 minutes or more.
A Greater Anglia spokesman said: “We’re very sorry that Mr Pochin felt he needed to take this action.
“Our delay repay scheme is the usual route for claiming compensation for delays.
“We’re making improvements to our delay repay scheme, upgrading the online delay repay process and trialling automatic delay repay for advance ticket holders. Although we are not obliged under our franchise to introduce delay repay for journeys delayed by 15 minutes, we are looking into it.”
The firm added that just under 90% of Greater Anglia trains run on time, and the line which Mr Pochin uses is being upgraded by Network Rail which has involved periods of time with rail replacement buses “but it is an investment for the future”.
Mr Pochin said he would be moving to Ipswich so he does not have to commute by train.
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