All aboard: students make train delay compensation an easy ride

Dutch national railway network NS promises compensation to travellers whose trains are delayed by 30 minutes. But actually claiming that money has proven to be yet another commuting headache for train riders, who have to precisely fill out online forms stating which train was delayed and by how long.

Enter two Utrecht students, Michael Hilhorst and Daan Ykema, who have made claiming that money back a seamless ride with their successful Trein-vertraging.nl initiative.

“So far, we have already collected more than 210,000 euros in compensation for travellers,” Hilhorst told the AD. Some 14,000 passengers are currently using their service.

Inspired by a school project, Hilhorst and Ykema wanted to make claiming delay compensation easier. “We often travel by train ourselves and we regularly have delays,” Hilhorst told AD. “For a school project, we wrote software that automatically keeps track of all trains in the Netherlands. As soon as a journey is delayed, we register it.”

Trein-vertraging.nl uses information from travellers’ scanned public transport chip cards or NS subscriptions to see if they are entitled to a refund. If they are, the fully-automated Trein-vertraging.nl submits the claim to NS and compensation is doled out.

No free rides

Hilhorst and Ykema say they have processed some 600,000 train journeys per quarter. They keep 20 percent of the compensation granted for themselves, although if a user invites three friends, the service is free.

Trein-vertraging.nl’s website says it can claim compensation retroactively up to three months, promising payout within two weeks and to challenge claims that aren’t initially accepted.

That’s a boon to riders, many of whom don’t bother asking for compensation despite NS’ frequent delays. “Many passengers find it a hassle or simply forget about it,” Hilhorst told the AD, adding that he thinks that serves the NS’ interests. “They seem to deliberately make it difficult to claim, so that they end up with millions of euros.”

NS admitted in 2019 that Dutch riders miss out on at least 20 million euros in unclaimed delay compensation every year.

Trein-vertraging.nl is in discussion with NS, which it says rejects about one-third of its claims, to make sure riders get what they’re entitled to. For its part, NS says it’s neutral towards the initiative.

“Of course, travellers are free to use it,” NS spokesperson Anita Middelkoop told the AD, disputing that requesting refunds is difficult and saying many of Trein-vertraging.nl’s requests are incomplete or unjustified. “Now that we have no insight into what happens to their travel data, we advise them to think carefully about this.”

But Hilhorst says privacy is not a problem. “We act in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We only use their data to submit the claim to NS, we do not store any travel history after the decision on the claim.”

All abroad

For now, Trein-vertraging.nl is focusing strictly on NS, although Hilhorst and Ykema hope to expand their service to other carriers both within the Netherlands and abroad. “For example, we also want to help Deutsche Bahn and Eurostar travellers get their money back,” says Hilhorst. A new European regulation that came into effect this summer requires carriers to accept claims.

Travelers’ association Rover supports Trein-vertraging.nl, but says NS should be arranging the refunds on its own.

“Why doesn’t NS pay compensation to travellers in the event of a delay?” Rover director Freek Bos said to the AD. “They also automatically debit money when checking in and out. They know exactly when you are on the train and what your account number is.”

It’s possible, he says, but costs NS money they don’t want to spend.

Founded in 1938, NS is Europe’s busiest rail network and the third busiest in the world after Switzerland and Japan.