Refunds

Rainy Day Guarantee

If you book an Anytime, Anytime Day, Off-Peak, Off-Peak Day, Super Off-Peak Day, or Southern Advance ticket online, you can cancel your journey and receive a free refund without the normal £10 administration fee.

More information about our Rainy Day Guarantee

General refunds

If you change your mind or events prevent you from using part or all of your tickets, (other than a Season Ticket) then you can apply for a refund for most tickets that have been purchased from the ticket office or the Self-Service Ticket Vending Machine.

You can apply for a refund with Southern if:

• the train you intended to use is cancelled, delayed or your reservation will not be honoured
• you decide not to travel and return the unused ticket/s straight back to any ticket office, Southern will, if in a position to do so, give you an immediate full refund. See ‘How refunds are paid‘ below

Tickets not purchased from a Southern station:

• even if your tickets were not purchased from Southern, you can still apply for a refund with Southern if:
• the ticket has been bought from another Train Company’s ticket office (or a Self-Service Ticket Vending Machine). If you return your ticket to any Southern ticket office or our Customer Service address no later than 28 days after the expiry of the ticket’s validity, we can forward your refund to the relevant company for processing
  
  For more information visit the Contact us page

Tickets purchased from telesales or the website

• if your ticket was purchased from Southern’s website, you will need to log onto your account to apply for the refund first. For further details, visit our FAQs page
• you will need to apply within 28 days of the expiry of the ticket’s validity in order to be eligible for a refund subject to the information below
• if purchased from another Train Company’s Telesales or internet website and you return the ticket to the address provided by that Train Company no later than 28 days after the expiry of the ticket’s validity, you will be eligible for a refund subject to the information below. See the Train Company’s conditions online for further details

Please bear in mind that the following applies if you surrender your ticket for a refund:

• the amount you receive as a refund will normally take into account any use you have made of the ticket, e.g. you will charged for a single fare if you used the outward portion of a return ticket
• in the case of a refund application being made of your own decision, or events that prevent you from travelling and not caused by the Train Company, you may have to pay a £10 administrative fee which in some circumstances means no refund will be paid as there may not be any residual value left on your ticket
• Your right to receive a refund of all or part of the price paid may be restricted in the case of some types of reduced and discounted fare tickets, e.g. advance purchase fares. Please check the conditions of the tickets either from the ticket/telesales office or from the Train Company’s website if purchased online before travelling
• in the case of refunds purchased from anywhere other that at a Southern Station, you will not receive an immediate refund but your refund application will be processed as soon as reasonably practicable. This will be due to the fact that your application will need to be sent to the relevant company for processing first

How refunds are paid

How your refund is paid back to you is dependent on how you paid for your ticket originally. Please see the table below.