Cancelled or delayed trains
You can apply for a full refund on an unused ticket if your train is cancelled or if your seat reservation will not be honoured. You will not be charged an administration fee.
If you have purchased an Advance ticket and your train is cancelled or delayed by more than 60 minutes, special arrangements will be made to accommodate you on the another train (although a seat cannot be guaranteed). If however as a result of the service disruption you decide not to travel, a refund will be offered on completely unused tickets and you will not be charged an administration fee.
Deciding not to travel for any other reason
Even if the train service is running normally, but you decide not to travel for your own reasons, you will be eligible for a refund in many cases subject to a £10 administration fee. Please note that in order to claim your refund you must return your unused ticket within 28 days. The exception is most Advance Tickets (i.e. where you must specify the date and time you will travel at the time of purchase) which are sold on a ‘no refund’ basis.
Seat Reservations
Your seat reservation fee(s) may be refunded if:
• The refund request is made via the same channel the seat reservation(s) was booked. For example, if the seat reservation was booked through a Travel Centre, the refund application must be submitted at the Travel Centre or, if booked on our website the refund application must be submitted via your online account.
• The seat reservation(s) are unused and the refund application is submitted before the first reserved train is due to depart.
• The refund application is submitted after the first reserved train is due to depart but is within the validity time period of the return journey. This is provided that the refund application is submitted no later than 23.59 on the day before the return journey is due to be made.
• The reserved seat(s) were not available on the booked train. Ask a member of on board staff to validate the seat reservation ticket(s). In a letter provide full details of the refund claim and include the validated seat reservation ticket(s). If you were unable to get the seat reservation ticket(s) validated while on your booked journey, please include an explanation as to why this was not possible. Submit your refund claim with supporting documents to:
East Coast Customer Relations
P.O. Box 850
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE99 1HZ
If a refund is only required for seat reservation(s) this will not be subject to a £10 refund administration fee. However, if a refund is required for both seat reservation(s) and travel ticket(s), the usual £10 refund administration fee will be applied to the travel ticket part of the refund. For more information on travel ticket refunds, please read ‘Non-completion of journey’ section above. Please note Advance tickets are non-refundable.
How to claim your refund
If you wish to apply for a refund you need to print out our form. When you have completed it, please take the form back to where you bought your ticket within 28 days of the ticket’s expiry date.
Alternatively, if you have booked your ticket from this website you can apply for a refund by visiting Your Account after you have signed in or post your ticket with a covering letter to our Web Support team at:
Web Support,
PO Box 1207,
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE99 1JH.
Telephone: 08457 225 111
We advise you to send your tickets back via a guaranteed delivery service, such as Royal Mail Special Delivery, or obtain a proof of posting certificate (available at any Post Office), as we cannot be held liable for any tickets lost in transit to us. We regret that the costs of postage and packaging cannot be refunded.
Please note we can only refund monies back onto the card originally used for payment.
Exceptions
We do not normally accept claims for compensation or refunds if, before you buy your ticket, we have published a revised timetable or given details of an alternative route owing to engineering work.
We do not accept liability for any loss caused by delay to your journey, cancellation of any train, missed connection, or closure of the railway.
We will only pay compensation under one scheme in respect of the same journey. If you wish to claim compensation under more than one scheme (for example if you were delayed by over 30 minutes and the seat you reserved wasn't available) then the scheme giving you the highest level of compensation will take precedence.
You can download the full East Coast Passenger's Charter here or collect from any staffed station at which East Coast trains stop.