Choo Choo
Making UK train travel cheaper.
2 followers
Making UK train travel cheaper.
2 followers
Our mission: make UK train travel cheaper and help users claim their delay compensation, solving the industry's two biggest pain points.
2 followers
2 followers
Hi Product Hunt!
Pure frustration drove me to launching my start-up. If you live in the UK, this pain point is incredibly relatable. We have a widely used train network for both commuting and leisure, but it is also very expensive and incredibly unreliable.
Unfortunately, trains are often delayed by 15 minutes or more, which is the delay compensation threshold for most train companies (though not all, adding to the confusion around eligibility). This means passengers should be able to claim compensation, but train companies never tell their passengers. That's terrible customer service, and I wanted to change it.
My original goal was to become a 3rd Party delay compensation claiming platform. However, I discovered that National Rail's terms and conditions don't allow third parties to claim on someone else's behalf. So I asked myself what's the next best thing? We could still tell users when they're eligible, how much they can claim, and how to do it. The best way to gather all this information would be to also sell users their train tickets.
This started our journey to becoming a ticket retailer. We quickly learned that the Rail Delivery Group (Part of National Rail) sets a 4.5% commission for online ticket sales, built into the ticket price and invisible to consumers. Unlike Trainline, we have no need to charge a booking fee. We also discovered that competitors weren't finding users all possible savings through smart split ticketing, given the near unlimited ways to split tickets across different journey routes.
The result is a train ticket app that is the most user-friendly option, both financially and in terms of experience, while also solving my original frustration - delay compensation!