Activist’s legal threat set to lead to more generous compensation for rail passenger assistance failures

Rail companies are likely to be forced to provide more generous compensation when they fail to assist disabled passengers, thanks to the actions of an accessible transport campaigner.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has written to train and station operators to tell them it plans to strengthen guidance on how they should compensate disabled passengers for failed assistance.

It has taken the action after disabled activist Doug Paulley (pictured) threatened legal action because rail operators were basing compensation for failed assistance on the price of the rail ticket.

This has meant that disabled passengers who have experienced significant and upsetting discrimination and major disruption to their travel plans have received just the price of their ticket by way of compensation.

Paulley pointed out to ORR that the compensation available through the courts, when taking a case for discrimination under the Equality Act, was often many times higher than that offered by the operators.

He has already exposed how compensation cases taken to the Rail Ombudsman have been leading to “ridiculously low” awards when compared with county court actions.

Now ORR has written to train and station operators to warn them that it plans to reconsider its guidance on how they should draw up their own Accessible Travel Policies (ATPs)*.

It plans to draft new guidance that will tell operators to consider future compensation claims “on a case-by-case basis, informed by an assessment of the circumstances and the impact on the passenger, and in consideration of all relevant legislation”.

The regulator said it was acting after Paulley’s legal threat, and court and ombudsman decisions that showed that in some situations “significant” financial compensation can be appropriate.

It also pointed out that, in 2023-24, less than one in four disabled passengers whose assistance had failed had sought compensation.

Paulley welcomed the ORR decision to draft new guidance.

He told Disability News Service: “For far too long, train and station operators have failed to treat assistance failures as what they are: incidents of illegal discrimination which have a profound effect on disabled travellers.

“Instead, they treat them as a minor customer services failure.

“As a result, compensation has been equivalent to ‘delay repay’, as opposed to the thousands that may rightly be awarded in court.

“It is good to see that the courts, then the ombudsman, and now the ORR, may finally recognise appropriate compensation levels.

“I hope that as many disabled people as possible demand appropriate compensation for their distress at every incident.

“It may well concentrate the minds of rail companies – given the moral imperative hasn’t reduced frequency of these incidents, perhaps the financial cost might.”

But Paulley said he was worried that the changes only apply to booked assistance, and he called on ORR and the train and station operators to give “equivalent consideration” to those disabled passengers who try to “turn up and go” without booking assistance in advance.

Stephanie Tobyn, ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform, said: “Our work with industry is first and foremost to ensure they deliver assistance to passengers that need it.

“But when assistance isn’t delivered it is important there is fair redress in place.

“We’ve listened to affected passengers and we believe it is right to review redress policies for failed passenger assistance.

“This will help ensure that train and station operators assess all passenger claims for redress on a case-by-case basis.”

*All train and station operators must establish and comply with an ATP – and have it approved by ORR – as a condition of their licence, setting out the services they will provide for disabled people

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