Commuter Delays? iPhone Tube Refund App Pays for Itself

Londoners stuck in the tube now have a handy iPhone app to request ticket refunds.
Tube Refund, which costs $0.99, zaps off the request for riders whose journey is delayed over 15 minutes.

Depending on where you go and what time of day, a one-way tube ticket can cost from £1.80 to £4.00 ($2.75 – $6 circa) and a weekly pass £44 ($67) so the app could quickly pay for itself.

This is a great idea — though according to the London Underground rules, refunds only apply for delays “within our control” that last over 15 minutes.

Given that it’s the oldest underground railway in the world, it’s hard to know how much time riders spend in darkened tunnels is due to reasons beyond control of transport authorities.

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Via London Evening Standard, thanks hackneye.

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Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

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http://ihbs.co.uk Ben
most of the time delays occur because lines are shut down for “essential mainetnence work” not sure whether this would count, tempting app though!
imajoebob
Unless you ride the Central or Metropolitan lines, don’t plan to do more than break even, if that. First, it’s rare a train gets stuck anywhere. Even rarer for more than a few minutes at a time. Second, most delays are actually posted in advance, so don’t expect refunds for those. And third, it’s actually a pretty reliable transit system, regardless of its age.
Now, if they have one of these for the commuter rail services… THAT would be worth its weight in gold. It could almost pay the O2 tariffs.
Chuck
I was heading home from London to Boston in November on the Pic line going to heathrow. Some jack-ass was wandering the tracks just after the houndslow (sp?) station. All trains by rule were forced to stop and the power to the line was cut off so he would not electrocute himself (the passengers were hoping for this to happen). We watched this idiot wander around yelling obscenities for over 40 minutes before London’s finest picked him up. It was like keystone cops watching them try and catch him. I wonder if they would consider this out of their control? :-)
AA
This App works.. for any delay over 15 mins.. and trust me, there are 2-3 per month if you’re a regular commuter..
I have used it a couple of times and it has worked just fine for me..