A COMPUTER glitch led to long-suffering train passengers being wrongly told they were not entitled to compensation for delays.

Govia, the parent company behind strike-ravaged Southern Rail, received thousands of claims in the run up to Christmas following a series of issues including broken down trains, cancellations due to driver shortages and signalling problems.

However the firm, which also runs Thameslink and Southeastern services in the county, has been writing to passengers saying their application under the delay repay scheme would not be paid because their application was too late.

This was despite passengers proving their claims were valid and sent on time.

One passenger told a national newspaper they received four letters from Govia declining their claims for delays in November and December, despite each letter showing the application was made within the 28 day limit.

Under current rules, passengers can claim 25 per cent to 100 per cent of a single journey following delays of more than 15 or 30 minutes depending on the rail company, within 28 days of their journey.

A spokesman for Govia said the problem with the computer system was fixed quickly and only a fraction of the small number of people who applied for compensation in writing were affected.

Some letters bearing incorrect information are only now being received by some of the passengers who wrote in due to the combination of Christmas post and postal strikes.

The spokesman said: “We apologise to those few customers who received letters containing erroneous information.

“There was a short-term technical issue with our system shortly before Christmas and some letters containing incorrect information were sent to customers.

“We are contacting those who received incorrect letters and will be resolving whose few claims early next week.”

The problem emerged as thousands of passengers across Sussex face another day of disruption today as Aslef drivers stage a 24 hour walkout as part of a long running dispute over driver only trains.

Further strikes are planned for later this month.