£100 a passenger: record payouts for rail firms hit by Beast from the East

PASSENGERS who suffered the most during last week’s storms are to receive £100 minimum compensation — the highest ever on the railways for disruption.

It will be paid by the Southeastern and South Western Railway firms, who had many passengers stuck for hours on stranded trains. This comes after rail watchdog Anthony Smith’s demand for the three-figure sum was revealed in Monday’s Standard.

The train operators face having to pay out millions of pounds compensation after hundreds of thousands of passengers suffered horrendous delays and cancelled services from Tuesday to Friday last week as much of the national network came to a stop.

Mr Smith, chief executive of the Transport Focus group, had told the Standard: “Exceptional circumstances require exceptional compensation. I want to see £100 plus for the worst cases.” A Southeastern spokesman said today: “We’ll be doubling the Delay Repay ticket refund scheme for all passengers caught up in disruption from Tuesday to Friday last week, and for passengers stranded for two hours or more on trains on Friday we’ll be giving them £100 or double Delay Repay, whichever is greater.”

Thousands of passengers were caught up in some of the worst chaos of the week on Friday, including commuters who forced their way out of a stranded train near Lewisham and started walking along the tracks. This meant power had to be turned off, bringing everything in the area to a stop.

Passengers complained of being cold and tired after being stranded for three hours on a broken-down train without heating. Hundreds of passengers were also stranded on five South Western services in Dorset, some all night in freezing temperatures without any drinking water or facilities. It happened after a Thursday evening Waterloo to Weymouth service became stuck on icy tracks near Christchurch.

Mr Smith said: “Passengers should be able to go away feeling content with what they are offered... snow, ice and electricity is not a good combination.”

There was no decision from Southern Rail, which operates services into Victoria and London Bridge, on

‘Travellers should get fair payouts... snow, ice and electricity is not a good combination’

Rail watchdog Anthony Smith

compensation levels. Greater Anglia, which cancelled up to 200 services a day for much of last week, said it would not be paying £100 compensation.

A spokeswoman said: “We told passengers in advance of a reduced service and advised them not to travel.”

The RMT union has ordered six days of strikes on the Docklands Light Railway in a dispute over pay and working conditions.

Its members, across all grades of staff, will walk out on Wednesday and Thursday March 21 and 22, and then again on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from April 20 to April 23.

RMT leader Mick Cash said the union was still willing to have talks over the DLR dispute.