Roughly a quarter of the £180m in compensation owed by the state-run track operator Network Rail to train operators will go to the GTR franchise that encompasses Southern Rail.

Data on Network Rail’s website show that £46.2m will be paid to the GTR franchise operator Govia, which is a joint venture between Go-Ahead and Keolis, under what are known as Schedule 8 payments for the 2017 financial year. The company treats this as passenger revenue meaning it is passed onto the Government as part of its contract.

This is double the £23m it was owed by Network Rail in the prior period and follows a large number of delays and cancellations on Southern, caused by a mixture of major works at London Bridge and the strike action by unions earlier this year, which has now been resolved.

Compensation payments to the Great Western Rail franchise from London's Paddington to the South West almost trebled to £23m, most likely due to delays caused by the electrification project. This scheme has since been curtailed because of cost meaning trains on the Welsh part of the line between Cardiff and Swansea will continue to run on diesel.

Earlier this year, the Public Accounts Committee had noted that the estimated cost of electrifying the stretch of the railway between Maidenhead and Cardiff had jumped by £1.2bn to £2.8bn.