Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that train operators speed up refunds for the portions of season tickets unused because of the restrictions in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic; and whether they will allow commuters to set the amount of any refunds they are due against the cost of the purchase of new season tickets.

We are monitoring train operators’ processing times closely to ensure that refunds are paid as quickly as possible. Train operators have allocated additional resources to process the unprecedented number of refund requests, so the majority are being paid within the industry standard processing time of one month. We have asked train operators to provide accurate estimates on their websites of the expected claim processing time, so passengers know when they will receive their refund and are reassured that the time taken to process their claim will not affect the amount refunded.

The Department has no plans to put in place a system where a refund that is due is offset against the cost of purchasing a new season ticket; however since 17 March over 120,000 season ticket holders have received refunds totalling over £190 million in response to COVID-19 travel restrictions.