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Trains, coaches and ferries

Refunds and compensation when a train, coach or ferry fails you

Which of refund, compensation and assistance can I claim on this kind of journey, and where do I start?

Applies to: European Union · United Kingdom · National law variesRules last checked:

On this page

In short

A disruption can give you up to four different rights: a refund, re-routing, free assistance (meals, accommodation) and compensation. They are separate, they have different triggers and different exceptions, and a carrier’s excuse that removes one often leaves the others in place.

The usual first step is a written complaint to the carrier (some countries also let you go straight to the enforcement body). The deadlines differ by mode: three months for rail and coach, two months for ferries.

What to do next

  • Identify the mode and the country of departure — that decides which regime applies.
  • Put the complaint in writing and keep a copy, whatever was said at the station.
  • Do not accept a voucher for a refund unless you are happy with it; ask for money.
  • Do not treat one rejected right as rejecting them all: ask about each right separately.

What happened

Four different rights

  • Refund: the ticket price back (with a return service where relevant) if you choose not to continue.
  • Re-routing: being taken to your destination by another route or at another time.
  • Assistance: meals or refreshments while you wait and, where a night is unavoidable, accommodation.
  • Compensation: an extra payment, usually a share of the ticket price, for the delay itself.

Severe weather usually removes compensation and, on coaches and ferries, the hotel duty; other extraordinary causes can remove compensation but not the hotel duty. None of these removes the choice of refund or re-routing, or the duty to provide meals and refreshments.

What to check

The three EU regimes side by side

Selected rules in force in the EU, as checked on the date shown (see each guide for exceptions and detail)
Train (Reg. 2021/782)Coach (Reg. 181/2011)Ferry (Reg. 1177/2010)
Choice of refund / re-routingExpected arrival delay of 60+ minDeparture delay over 120 min or cancellationDeparture delay over 90 min or cancellation
Compensation25% (60–119 min), 50% (120+ min) of ticket price50% only if the carrier fails to offer the choice25% at 1, 2, 3 or 6 h by journey length; 50% above double that
Meals and refreshmentsFrom a delay of 60+ minJourneys over 3 h, delay over 90 min at departureDeparture delay over 90 min
HotelIf a night is needed; cap of 3 nights only for exempt causesUp to EUR 80/night, max 2 nightsUp to EUR 80/night, max 3 nights
Complain to the carrier within3 months3 months2 months

What to do

The order to work in

  1. Decide what you need now: to continue, to go home, or a place to stay. Ask for it while you are still at the station, stop or port.
  2. Keep evidence: ticket, times, notices, receipts, names.
  3. Write to the carrier within the deadline for your mode, naming the rights you are relying on.
  4. Follow the carrier’s reply dates; if it rejects or ignores you, take the case to the national enforcement body of the country concerned.
  5. Check whether any other cover applies — for example a travel-insurance policy or a package-holiday organiser — and read its own time limits.

Flights follow different rules with national time limits; see the air-travel guides in this section. Outside the EU and the UK, other law applies, and the carrier’s own conditions of carriage may be the main source of rights.

Sources

General information to help you understand your options — not legal advice, and not a promise that any payment or refund is due to you. Your rights depend on the facts of your journey and the law that applies; check the official sources above and the carrier’s own terms.