A hearing date has been set for a multi-million pound legal claim after millions of people were allegedly overcharged by a rail giant.
The operator behind Southern and Thameslink is being sued for an estimated £73.3 million in damages over allegations that over three million passengers were overcharged for train fares.
The case is being brought against Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which also runs Gatwick Express services, by consumer campaigner Justin Gutmann.
Mr Gutmann alleges that GTR has breached competition laws by charging TfL Travelcard holders too much for travel on their routes.
The claim against GTR was filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in November last year.
Mr Gutmann claims that commuters to London were not given sufficient access to so-called boundary fares.
He said passengers with London Travelcards should have been offered discounted tickets to stop them from effectively being charged twice for parts of their journey.
Mr Gutmann said: “This claim is the latest step in my campaign to stamp out routine overcharging of millions of passengers by some of Britain’s top rail operators.
"The failure of these companies to make boundary fares more freely available is scandalous and has been going on for years. It’s a practice that needs to stop – and passengers who have overpaid deserve compensation.”
Boundary fares allow passengers with Travelcards to travel beyond the zones covered by their card to their destination of choice without paying twice for the part of the journey that is already covered by their Travelcard zones.
For example, if a passenger buys a zones 1-6 Travelcard and needed to go from Victoria to Brighton, they should be able to buy a fare starting from the edge of zone 6 to Brighton as they have already paid for the first part of the journey with the Travelcard.
It is claimed that an estimated 240 million journeys since November 2015 could have benefited from boundary fares if travellers had been aware of them.
A spokesman for GTR said: “Millions of journeys are made every week on GTR’s rail networks and we are committed to providing the best value fare to every passenger.
“We consider this claim to be flawed, and we dispute the allegations within it. We will be defending our position robustly.”
A hearing has been set by the CAT to take place on the first available date after February 20, 2023.
The hearing will determine whether or not Mr Gutmann’s claim is allowed to proceed to trial.
If the claim is permitted to go forward, then those affected will not have to pay any legal fees, nor contact lawyers.
Affected passengers who live in the UK will automatically be included in the claim, although they can choose to opt out in due course.
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