According to Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert, 1.4 million UK rail passengers are owed at least £30 each in compensation for overpaid train tickets — but there isn’t long left to claim your payout.
It’s all due to a group legal claim brought against South West Trains by campaigner Justin Gutmann, who argued the operator had charged TfL Travelcard holders twice for journeys between 2015 and 2017.
South West, which ran the South Western railway until 20 August 2017, settled the case out of court and agreed to pay up to £25 million in compensation.
It’s all to do with so-called ‘boundary fares’, which allow those with TfL Travelcards to only pay a portion of the fare outside the zones designated on their card.
As an example, if you had a zone 1-4 Travelcard but travelled from London Waterloo to Epsom (which is outside the TfL zones), you should have been able to buy a fare from zone 4 to Epsom — since you would have already paid for the part of your journey covering zones 1-4 through the Travelcard.
However, Mr Gutmann’s lawyers claimed South West didn’t do enough to make customers aware of boundaries fares or make it easy enough to buy them. And although the rail firm denied this, refusing to admit liability as part of the settlement, it’ll still be offering refunds en masse.
How much South West compensation could you get?
Legal documents relating to the case estimate boundary fares would’ve saved passengers between £3.85 and £5.11 for each journey, with each affected passenger losing an average of £27.90 in total.
The claim amounts reflect this, with different levels of compensation available depending on the evidence you can provide.
For those with no proof, the maximum amount you can claim is capped at £30 — up to six journeys at £5 each.
If you have limited evidence — either proof of purchase of TfL Travelcard(s) or proof of purchase of South West Train ticket(s) — your claim is capped at £100, or up to 20 journeys at £5 each.
For those who can provide both of these forms of evidence, there’s no cap, and you can claim for the full amount you overpaid based on the number of journeys you took.
On the MSE website, it explains: ‘You’ll most likely get the full amount you claim for. However, if many more people claim than expected, you could get back less.
‘This is because South West Trains has only agreed to pay up to £25 million, and the structure of the settlement means that most of this money is reserved for people who can provide full evidence – while the amount available for those with limited or no evidence is capped at a lower level.’
Who is eligible to claim South West Trains compensation?
You can make a claim if you meet all of the following criteria:
- You had a TfL Travelcard at any time between October 1, 2015, and August 20, 2017.
- During this time, you bought one or more South West Trains tickets for travel from a station within the zones covered by your TfL Travelcard to a station outside those zones.
- You lived in the UK on both October 19, 2021, and April 30, 2024.
- You haven’t previously opted out of the legal case (you would have had to fill in a form or contact the law firm to opt out).
While season tickets are included, you must have had a TfL Travelcard for the whole period of the season ticket.
Additionally, only outbound journeys from London are covered, apparently ‘for the sake of simplicity’.
Those who did manage to buy boundary fare tickets (those from the endpoint of your Travelcard to the destination outside the zones it applies to) during this time also can’t claim for them.
How to claim South West Trains compensation
It’s easy to submit your claim — just answer a few questions on this online form.
If you have evidence, you’ll be asked to provide the date of each journey and the origin and destination stations. Otherwise, you’ll just be asked for the number of journeys you took.
Avoid claiming if you aren’t sure you meet the eligibility criteria, as the claims administrator will conduct random anti-fraud spot checks, and you may get caught out.
Be aware too, the deadline for claims is Friday January 10, 2025.
After this date, the claims will be assessed to work out how much each person is due. There’s no date set for when the compensation will be issued, but MSE says the administrator is looking to start sending payments in 2025.
Even if you don’t qualify this time, Mr Gutmann and his team are also pursuing similar claims against South Western Railway (which took over from South West Trains in August 2017), Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southeastern, Southern, and Thameslink, with the next trial set for June 2025.
Passengers who’ve travelled with any of these companies are advised to keep hold of relevant evidence in the meantime, just in case. It may come in handy later.
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