Helping our customers and wider community

We know that many of our customers have had to cancel and change travel plans over the last few weeks, and our team has been working very hard to help them. 

When the Covid-19 travel disruption started, we asked the rail companies to relax rules around refunds, so that we could give our customers refunds on all ticket types, even non-refundable options. We also worked quickly to put in place simple-to-follow, automated processes, allowing as many of our customers as possible to make changes or request refunds through our app and website in just a few clicks.

The last couple of weeks have been a huge challenge for our team, dealing with thousands of customer questions daily, at the same time as adapting to working from home. We recognise that we haven’t been able to respond to many of you as fast as we would like, and we want to thank you for the patience you’ve shown us over this time.

While we remain focused on helping our customers with refunds, exchanges and making sure those who still need to travel can access up-to-date live journey information in our app, we would also like to do our bit to support wider national efforts at such a difficult time.

We are using our website and app to share important public health messaging - such as Stay Home, Save Lives - and shine a light on the work of charities delivering crucial support for communities at this time across the UK. Throughout April and May, you’ll see messages from these organisations in our product, our emails, social media posts and other communications too. We want to do all we can to help connect our customers to local and national charities that need support, now, more than ever.

We’ll also be making a donation to the National Emergencies Trust Coronavirus Appeal, which is giving vital funds to UK organisations helping our communities through this difficult time. It will be our biggest charitable donation to date. The travel industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis but, despite this, we think it is important that we contribute to the national fight against its impact, whilst making sure we continue to prioritise supporting our customers and ensuring the wellbeing of our team.

We hope that you all are staying safe and well, and we look forward to helping you travel – to see family, friends and explore the world again – as soon as possible.

Clare & the Trainline team