Getting refund for unused train tickets

Question

On November 7, we got stuck at Tottenham Hale train station in London because all trains of Stansted Express to the airport were canceled. We were told that one of the options was to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Cambridge and then catch the Stansted Express train to Stansted airport. I bought those tickets in a rush, afraid we would miss our flight. Only then I realized that we would arrive at the airport too late. Ultimately, we got to the airport by taxi and managed to catch our flight back home to Poland.

A few days after, I am sitting at home with two train tickets I have never used.

Can I get a refund for them online?

I wanted to give them back when I was at the ticket office in London. If I had done so, I would have missed our flight.

Answer 1

You can definitely obtain a refund for the first ticket, from Tottenham Hale to Stansted, regardless of what ticket type you had - as you can obtain a fee-free refund if you decide to abandon your journey due to disruption.

As for the second ticket, from London to Cambridge, it's a bit trickier. You shouldn't really have been told to buy this - if there was serious disruption to trains from Tottenham Hale, ticket acceptance should have been arranged and you shouldn't have had to pay anything extra.

However, if there was no disruption to trains from London to Cambridge, you might still have an administration fee deducted from your refund.

In both instances you need to contact the company you bought your tickets from, e.g. the website/app or operator of the ticket machine/ticket office where you bought your ticket.

They might ask you to submit a picture of your tickets being cut in two (if you had paper tickets), but don't do this unless they actually ask you to do so!