A RAIL company is improving its compensation payments following a petition and a week of misery on the trains.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates the Brighton to Bedford line, is upping its compensation payments made to season ticket holders by 5%.

The company has said the increase is to “bring it in line” with what was offered by previous service operator First Capital Connect.

As of yesterday, commuters can enjoy the increased payments from the company’s repay delay service.

A petition to the Department of Transport calling for improvements to the service was launched last year.

The online petition has been signed by more than 2,500 people.

Those behind the petition said in a statement: “Govia Thameslink won the bid to run our trains by vowing to cut costs.

“It appears they have done this by reducing staff and foregoing essential maintenance work. Every day trains are delayed due to ‘staff shortages’, ‘broken down trains’ and ‘signal failure’”.

The compensation for season ticket holders is based on dividing the total cost of the ticket by an assumed number of journeys taken.

Under the improved payment scheme, the estimation of number of journeys has now been reduced so commuters will see more cash in their pockets at the end of the calculations.

Last week services into central London operated by GTR were hit by flooding in a tunnel at Farringdon.

More than 1,000 trains were cancelled after a water main burst on January 23 with 133 hours of combined delays.

A Network Rail spokesman said the company would be sending Thames Water a “multi-million pound bill” for the damage done by the burst main and several other leaks from other water pipes.

Phil Verster, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “Passengers have suffered a lot this week as a result of burst and leaking pipes.

“The extent of the continued flooding made it unsafe to run normal services between London St Pancras and London Blackfriars since Sunday.

“We expect Thames water to reimburse passengers, train operators and Network Rail for the consequences of these leaks.”

Passengers can claim compensation for delayed journeys at thameslinkrailway.com/delayrepay