Ceredigion MP Ben Lake has backed Which?’s calls for automatic compensation for Ceredigion train passengers.

With passengers across the UK losing almost four million hours to significantly delayed train journeys in 2018, Mr Lake is backing a call for passengers to receive fully automatic compensation for delays and cancellations. 

Along with Which?, Mr Lake is demanding that the UK government’s rail review ensures that simpler and easier compensation processes are introduced across the network as soon as possible.

After a record year for disruption sent trust in the rail industry to new lows, the case for making compensation automatic has never been clearer.

Currently passengers claim for only a third (34 per cent) of journeys where money is owed for delays and cancellations.

Which?’s findings come as the rail industry rolls out its latest summer timetable which aims to introduce 1,000 extra services per week across the country – one year on from last year’s disastrous timetable chaos where disruption left the personal and professional lives of thousands of passengers in tatters. 

Mr Lake said: “My constituents are rightly fed up with the unreliable service that they have received over the past year on the railways.

“Unprecedented levels of delays and cancellations have left them struggling to get to important appointments and meetings on time.

“That’s why I’m backing Which?’s calls to introduce automatic compensation across the network.

“The Williams Review is a chance to overhaul the complex compensation system for passengers – so that when things do go wrong, at least they get the money they are owed.”

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition tomorrow