Commuters have had the worst autumn in living memory. They've had to endure hell and high water, often both at the same time.

A long-running combination of floods and speed restrictions, imposed after the Hatfield rail disaster, has led to simple journeys often taking many hours.

Season ticket holders with Connex South Central, the main operator in Sussex, are likely to get three weeks' worth of free travel as compensation.

But thousands of people who pay daily rather than weekly, monthly or annually will lose out because their tickets were swallowed by the platform machines, leaving them with no proof of travel.

There's no doubt regular travellers are entitled to compensation for the privation and misery they have suffered during the past two months.

It should be possible to work out a system for compensating daily passengers too, even if they can't produce tickets for every journey.

These travellers have experienced just as much rail misery as their season ticket counterparts and deserve the same recompense.