Here’s a shocking fact for those of you who (like me) shivered on freezing platforms when their train was cancelled or delayed over the so-called festive period. The train operating companies can actually make a nice little profit out of your distress, so they have almost no incentive to improve the service.

As you get ready to fork out £5,000-plus for an annual season ticket on a 40-mile journey into work on a train built 30 years ago, which arrives at your destination on time approximately every solar eclipse, consider this: train operators receive a “schedule 8” payment from Network Rail when something goes wrong with the infrastructure, such as a points failure. It is designed to compensate them for the impact of poor performance on their revenue. It is estimated that last year train operators picked up £107m from Network Rail for delays. But how much was paid out to the customers who were the victims of these problems? Just £26m. It means the train operating companies profited by some £81m because something went wrong.

Plans to allow rail users to claim compensation for 15-minute delays Read more

Even the long-running industrial action on the Southern network is barely touching profits at GTR, the operating company that runs the routes. Its unique contract, put in place to cover the period while London Bridge station is rebuilt, means fares are currently paid directly to the government. The taxpayer will foot the bill for the estimated £28m in lost revenue and millions more in Delay Repay compensation. Meanwhile the government pays GTR £1bn a year to run the service.

Southern’s Delay Repay scheme has been improved, but is still far from adequate. As of this month rail users delayed 15 minutes or more can obtain 25% of the single fare back, rising to 50% if the delay is 30 minutes or longer. But the money only goes to those who apply – the majority don’t. Less than 0.5% of GTR’s turnover is paid out in compensation; across the industry only one third of eligible passengers obtain a payout.

The simple solution is re-nationalisation. Even diehard opponents of state ownership must feel shamed by the shambles our train network has become – as evidenced by the personal stories we highlight in today’s Money. But re-nationalisation will not in itself incentivise the rail operator to run trains on time and with enough seats (although it would go some way to help).

The Tory MP for the deep-blue Conservative commuting territory of East Worthing and Shoreham, Tim Loughton, has come up with a plan he hopes will give the private train companies a kick up the backside, and has won support from other MPs, such as Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, whose constituents know a thing or two about train delays.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Loughton wants the train companies to be forced to pay a penalty fine every time a train is late, is cancelled, or overruns a station. The money would go into a central pot, entirely independent of the train company, from which passengers should be able to claim very easily. If passengers don’t claim compensation (sometimes it can be just a few quid) then the remaining money would be used to offset fares.

He is also proposing a new rail ombudsman with the power to award compensation more directly linked to the realistic loss suffered by passengers. When you are turfed off a train far short of your destination the cost of getting home is far more than the repayment of the single fare. Transport Focus, the body for consumers, has no power to impose binding decisions against train operators. As Loughton says: “The current problem is that the passenger can like it or lump it. The complaints procedure largely relies on the goodwill of the train operating company beyond the minimum obligations.”

Unfortunately Loughton’s bill was introduced under the 10-minute rule and without official government support will go nowhere. That said, prime minister Theresa May hails from Eastbourne, which suffers a craptacular rail service. So there’s hope yet.

p.collinson@theguardian.com