Greater Anglia passenger photographs £1,000-worth of train delay vouchers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-30639486

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A season ticket holder has photographed the £1,090 of train delay compensation vouchers he received in 2014 to highlight problems with services.

Tom Burridge, 31, commutes from his home in Colchester to London.

He made 64 successful claims in the past year, with his longest delay a four-hour wait in October.

Train operator Abellio Greater Anglia and Network Rail, which maintains the route, said performance on the line had "not been good enough".

Mr Burridge, an IT project manager based at Victoria, in west London, spends £5,750 on his annual ticket.

He said he received vouchers valued between £5.30 and £25.00, depending on the length of the delay which had to be at least 30 minutes before he made a claim for it.

"I was sat at my kitchen table adding them up and it turned out to be more than I expected so thought I would take a photograph," he said.

"I tend not to be critical of Greater Anglia if I can avoid it. You kind of have to grin and bear it. I have watched and listened to the criticism and thought this was a good way of expressing the problems we've had."

Mr Burridge, who has been commuting for 10 years, said he made about 500 train journeys a year.

"This year is without doubt the worst year we've had for delays," he said.

Passengers can claim compensation if their services are delayed by more than 30 minutes.

Mr Burridge said the vouchers would go towards his next annual season ticket.

An Abellio Greater Anglia spokesman said there had been "a number of problems" on the Great Eastern Main Line in recent months, including infrastructure failures, overrunning engineering works, train faults and trespass incidents.

He said: "We recognise that performance has not been consistent enough and we're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused passengers when services have been delayed."

A Network Rail spokesman agreed performance had not been "good enough" and said it was "investing heavily" in improvements.

"This passenger is doing the right thing in claiming for his disrupted journeys and we can only apologise that the service has not been as reliable as it should be," he said.