Virgin Delay Repay
 

Anyone here have recent experience of delay repay on Virgin West Coast?
Is it payable if a delay of less than 30 mins leads to a missed connection, causing an overall delay to reaching the final destination of more than an hour? The gap between the trains was about 15 mins and the CrossCountry service pulled away just as the Virgin service arrived.

You probably can't do it online - most train companies only support "simple" cases on their websites including only their trains and stations

Frankly your easiest option is to take a photo of the ticket, then email it to cross country trains (not virgin) along with details of what trains you caught and what you intended to get, and the final delay length. They will reply back a day later saying "sorry you were late, but as the first delay was virgin we've sent your complaint onto them". A week later Virgin should post you vouchers / cheque as requested

Provided it was a genuine connection (there are minimum transfers times at major stations) then yes, you are entitled to the delay in reaching your final destination, even on split tickets.

Email the company that incurred the initial delay.

I used to get lucky with this a lot coming back on East Coast on a Sunday, with an hourly connection at Peterborough. I'd always pop to the shops anyway to pick up something for tea, but a few minutes late and I'd be eligible for delay repay...

The issue happened at Wolverhampton, and had all been on time it would have been an simple walk across from one platform to another, was all on one ticket too.

Note a "simple walk across from one platform to another" will butter no parsnips if you were under the minimum connecting time. You say "all on one ticket" - if that was an advance booking then it would meet the connecting times, but if you're on a flexible ticket the connection time should be enforced.

Wolverhampton station has a minimum connection time of 7 minutes - irrespective of platforms. If it's less than that, it's not a connection (as far as the train companies as concerned, any road).

I had a reservation on both trains, bought together, and more than 7 mins between the trains, so all above board I think.

Virgin Delay Repay
 

Fill in the form, attach digital photos of your tickets and submit. Easy peasy.

https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/delayrepay

I think you're making it a bit more complicated than it needs to be!

As others have said, just make the claim with the train company that incurred the initial delay - after all they are the ones who have messed up the overall journey. In this case it's Virgin Trains.

You are however correct in suggesting that Virgin Trains' online Delay Repay form doesn't accept claims for journeys with origin or destination stations that aren't on 'their' network - put in Penzance, Brighton or Fort William for example and you get the message "Oops! We cannot find this station. Please try again".

I'm afraid I don't think any of the train companies really make very clear in their publicity how Delay Repay works when it involves more than one operator. I suppose that we could be thankful that at least it does still apply when multiple operators are involved!