Longer delays required for refund

Refunds will be given in the form of NI Railways vouchers

Compensation will no longer be paid to passengers for trains less than half an hour late from the end of this month.

Delays between 30 and 59 minutes will warrant a 50% refund on a single ticket, while a full refund is given for delays between 60 and 119 minutes.

If a train is late by two hours or more, passengers will be able to recoup the cost of a return ticket.

But Translink will not pay out for rail delays caused by security alerts, crime or "very extreme" weather conditions.

Under its new compensation scheme, Translink said season ticket holders could get 10% discounts if reliability targets are not met or they fall 3% below on-time targets for a particular line.

The company has also come up with a range of new formulas to calculate compensation for weekly, monthly and annual ticket holders.

For example, a weekly ticket holder delayed for more than two hours would be entitled to one-fifth of their fare back.

Compensation will be paid in the form of NI Railways vouchers which can be used as payment or part-payment for future ticket purchases, the company said.

Spokesman Ciaran Rogan said the new system replaced old arrangements which were "not simple enough".

The scheme does not apply to the cross-border Enterprise service, which has separate compensation arrangements.