Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that rail companies communicate effectively with passengers about the season ticket refund process; and whether the length of time it is taking to refund such claims is acceptable in view of the Secretary of State for Transport’s commitment to such refunds on 23 March so that "no one is unfairly out of pocket for doing the right thing".

Since 17 March over 160,000 season ticket holders have received refunds totalling over £260 million in response to COVID-19 travel restrictions. We are monitoring train operators’ refund processing times to ensure that refunds are paid as quickly as possible. Train operators have allocated additional resources to process the unprecedented number of refund requests, and the majority are being paid within the industry standard processing time of one month.

We have worked with train operators to ensure they are providing clear information on their websites about the season ticket refund process including estimates of the expected claim processing time and a refund calculator, so passengers know when they should receive their refund and are reassured that the time taken to process their claim will not affect the amount refunded.