Stagecoach South Western Trains to compensate an estimated 1.4 million customers who were not informed about cheaper ‘boundary zone’ fares
: NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Train passengers have won the UK’s largest class action lawsuit payout in history of £25 million after being overcharged for their tickets.
More than a million people who travelled on mainline trains towards London Waterloo are in line for up to £100 each after the company which used to operate those trains settled a legal case.
Stagecoach South Western Trains (SSWT), which operated the South Western rail franchise until 2017, is making a total of £25 million available to an estimated 1.4 million travellers whom it overcharged.
“This is the largest settlement in the history of the collective proceedings regime in the UK,” said a spokesman for Woodsford Group, the business which funded the class action-style lawsuit against SSWT.
“Now that the settlement has been approved by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a scheme will be set up to allow class members to submit a claim for redress.”
: ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The case came about because passengers who held London Travelcards between 2015 and 2017 were not offered the option of buying less expensive “boundary zone” tickets when travelling to stations inside Transport for London’s fare zones.
Effectively, passengers were paying twice for the London portion of their journeys.
Normally, travellers would buy a train ticket from their local station to a London terminus such as Waterloo.
Because of the way that Transport for London’s zone-based fares work, however, there are hidden National Rail tickets called “boundary zone” fares.
London Travelcards are valid together with National Rail tickets made out to one of those boundary zones, meaning Travelcard holders were entitled to cheaper fares instead of paying for a ticket all the way to the end of the line.
: Joanne Edwards / Story Picture Agency
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