Coronavirus refunds
Ticket refunds and exchanges
Our customer relations team are experiencing a very high number of requests at the moment, and there may be a significant delay to processing your request, please be reassured that you will receive the refund you are due.
As circumstances change rapidly, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to change or cancel your travel plans. Please be aware that due to the high volume of refund requests we are receiving, it may take longer than normal to process your refund.
If you bought your ticket from Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink and your ticket(s) are valid for travel up to and including Thursday 30 April 2020, enhanced arrangements for refunds and exchange are detailed below. We will continue to review the dates of travel that these arrangements apply to.
If you bought your ticket from another train company or a booking agent, please contact them for information on their refund policy.
The information below provides details of alternative means of gaining a refund where these are available.
Refunds on season tickets
If you bought your Season Ticket directly from us, we can generally give you a refund if there is:
- Seven weeks (or more) left on an annual Season Ticket
- Seven days (or more) left on a Season Ticket valid between one and ten months
- Three days (or more) left on a weekly Season Ticket
More information on season ticket refunds can be found at National Rail Enquiries.
How do I calculate the refund I will receive for my season ticket?
If you have a season ticket you have used for more than one month, you can get an estimate of the refund you will receive by using our Season Ticket Calculator. Please note that this estimate may not include the refund fee or ticket discounts at the time of purchase. Tickets bought before 1 Jan 2020 at last year’s (lower) prices will also receive a refund based on this price.
Please consider the amount you will receive carefully before requesting a refund as all refunds are final.
Season ticket refund calculator
We have introduced enhanced arrangements to make it as easy as possible for you to change or cancel your travel plans.
If you bought your ticket from Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink, enhanced arrangements for refunds and exchange are detailed below.
We will continue to review the dates of travel that these arrangements apply to. If you bought your ticket from another train company or a booking agent, please contact them for information on their refund policy.
| Ticket type | Refund exchange policy |
| Anytime, Off-Peak, and Super Off-Peak tickets | A full refund is available for unused tickets with no fees applied. You have up to 56 days from the date you intended to travel to apply for this refund, however refunds will be processed in the order they are received. |
| Advance purchase tickets (tickets for a specific, timed service) |
Tickets sold before 07:00 on 23 March 2020 for travel from 07:00 on 23 March 2020 A full refund is available but must be applied for before the departure time of the first train you are booked on. Alternatively, you may exchange an advance purchase ticket to a different date without paying an exchange fee before the departure time of the first train you are booked on. Any difference in fare will be payable and no refund available if the new fare is less. The new ticket must be between the same two stations. If your plans change again, you can change the ticket to another future date. Please note that any advance ticket is for a single journey, therefore a return journey comprises of two individual single tickets. On this basis, you are eligible for a refund or exchange of the “return” section even if you have already made the outward journey. Tickets sold after 07:00 on 23 March 2020 These tickets are booked with knowledge that a revised timetable is in operation. We will therefore only be able to offer a refund or exchange if the service you have booked for is later disrupted or cancelled. Please only make bookings if you definitely intend to travel. |
| Season tickets |
Season tickets offer a discount to encourage customers to purchase the ticket up front, instead of buying each day/week/month as they travel. Refunds are calculated as the difference between the cost of your season ticket and what it would have cost you to make the journey daily without the season ticket. This means that towards the expiry of the season ticket, there comes a point when it will no longer have been cheaper to travel using a shorter duration ticket and therefore no refund is due. For tickets of more than a month, you can use our season ticket refund calculator below to estimate the refund due. Please consider the amount you will receive carefully before proceeding with the refund as all refunds are final, and season tickets cannot be “restarted” once the refund is processed. Refunds are normally calculated based on the date you submit the ticket for refund, however we will consider back-dated claims for journeys affected by the government “essential travel” advice in place since 17 March. A £10 refund fee will also be payable. We do not offer a “pause and restart” option for season tickets. |
| Rover tickets | A full refund is available before the period of validity starts with no fees applied. Tickets cannot be refunded once the period of validity has started. |
| Daysave tickets | These tickets are not refundable. Please only purchase them if you are certain you will travel. |
| Carnet tickets | A full refund is available on all unused Carnet tickets based on the face value of each ticket. Each individual unused ticket must be submitted. |
| Oyster / Contactless | Please contact Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk) for any refunds for tickets purchased on Oyster or Contactless. |
If you purchased your ticket online:
- as an e-ticket
- on a Key smartcard
- as a “ticket on departure” that you have not yet collected
it is easiest to manage your refund or exchange is through your online account in most cases:
- Login to your account at Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern or Thameslink and go to ‘Manage my tickets / refund’ section..
- If you purchased your ticket as a Guest, please refer to your booking confirmation email for details of how to ‘Link your order to an account’
If you have the paper tickets or you are unable to process a refund via your on-line account, you should apply for a refund remotely using our Paper Ticket Refunds form at Thameslink, Southern, or Great Northern.
We have worked hard to process an unprecedented number of refund requests over the past two months. The majority of requests submitted are refunded within 28 days. For certain types of ticket and refund submission methods, we may be able to process your refund more quickly – for instance requests made via an online account are generally made within five days.
We understand that receiving your refund is important and it will be processed as quickly as possible. However, please do not chase your claim. We are unable to locate individual claims until they are processed, and we will contact you at that point. Answering queries of this nature uses up resource that we would otherwise be able to commit to processing claims.
If you have not heard from us within 28 days of submitted a refund application, please get in touch and we will investigate your claim. If you applied at a ticket office, please provide as much information as you can, including a copy of any paperwork issued by the ticket office. If you applied using the web form, or other online service, please quote your reference number.