Untap

Delay Repay · Chiltern

Chiltern Railways Delay Repay: rates, claim form and time limit

Chiltern Railways pays Delay Repay from 15 minutes late: 25% of a single ticket at 15 to 29 minutes, rising to 100% from an hour. You must claim within 28 days of travel.

Checked against Chiltern Railways's own page on 8 October 2026

Go to the Chiltern claim form

Pays from

15 min

Deadline

28 days

Automatic?

Check when you claim

What Chiltern pays

Every tier is a percentage of the single fare for the delayed direction. If you bought a return, the single fare is half what you paid, which is how every UK operator calculates it. The one exception is two hours or more: on a return ticket, Chiltern pays back the whole return fare, not half of it. On a single, the top rate is the whole single fare.

What Chiltern Railways's own page says

How much compensation will you receive ?

  • Single Ticket Return Ticket Season Ticket
  • 0-14 minutes None None None
  • 15-29 minutes 25% of ticket cost 12.5% of ticket cost 25% of journey cost
  • 30-59 minutes 50% of ticket cost 25% of ticket cost 50% of journey cost
  • 60-119 minutes 100% of ticket cost 50% of ticket cost 100% of journey cost
  • 120 minutes or longer 100% of ticket cost 100% of ticket cost 100% of return journey cost
  • If you are delayed on a Chiltern Railways journey and the cause of the delay was within the railway industry control you can claim compensation. You must make a claim within 28 days of travel. Our compensation policy is :
Copied word for word from Chiltern Railways's own Delay Repay page on 8 October 2026. Open the source

Will they claim for you?

We have not been able to confirm this from Chiltern Railways directly, so treat it as manual and check when you claim.

Chiltern advertises automatic Delay Repay on its smart ticketing page, saying it will alert you if you are delayed. Its Delay Repay and compensation pages describe only manual claims by form or post and do not mention it. We could not establish whether it pays without you acting, so assume you need to claim and check when you do.

Across the network only c2c pays with no action at all. Everywhere else, "automatic" means the operator fills the form in and waits for you to press the button.

How to claim from Chiltern

  1. Open the Chiltern claim form
  2. Have your booking reference from the confirmation email to hand
  3. Give the date, the departure and arrival stations, and the scheduled time
  4. Say how late you arrived, not how late you departed. The scheme scores arrival
  5. Attach a photo of the ticket or your e-ticket screenshot
  6. Submit within 28 days of travelling
  7. Expect a response within about 20 working days
  8. If it is refused and you think that is wrong, the Rail Ombudsman is free
Claim from Chiltern

Common questions

My Chiltern train was 20 minutes late. Can I claim?
Yes. Chiltern pays 25% of the ticket cost on a single ticket for a delay of 15 to 29 minutes, and 12.5% on a return ticket. The cause of the delay must have been within the railway industry's control, and you must claim within 28 days of travel.
My Chiltern return ticket was delayed two hours. What do I get back?
At 120 minutes or longer Chiltern pays 100% of the ticket cost on a return ticket. For a delay of 60 to 119 minutes a return ticket pays 50% of the ticket cost.
Should I put my Chiltern ticket through the barrier if I want to claim?
No. Chiltern says that if you have a paper single or return ticket and intend to claim, you should not put it through the barrier at the end of the journey, because you need to keep it to support your claim. If you paid with contactless or Oyster, send a statement of your journey from the TfL website with your claim.
How much does Chiltern pay?
A percentage of your single fare: 25% from 15 minutes, 50% from 30 minutes, 100% from 60 minutes. On a return, the single fare is treated as half what you paid, except at 120 minutes or more, when a return ticket gets the whole return fare back.
How long do I have to claim from Chiltern?
28 days from the date you travelled. After that they are within their rights to refuse, though it is still worth asking if you have a good reason.

The hard part is remembering

Only 45% of passengers with an eligible delay ever claim, and the most common reason is not that people think it is complicated. It is that 28 days pass. Untap watches your journeys and tells you while there is still time. Free, and we never take a share of what you get back.

Price a Chiltern journeyOr see how the watching works

Other operators

See every operator and how Delay Repay works

Thresholds, tiers and deadlines are taken from Chiltern Railways's own published Delay Repay terms, checked on 8 October 2026. Operators change these from time to time, so the claim form is always the final word. Untap helps people in the UK find money they are already owed. We do not file claims and we do not take a share of any refund.