A Kent MP has called for rail bosses to repay fares on trains more than 15 minutes late.

Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge and Malling, has called for Southeastern to adopt the scheme, Delay Repay 15.

Currently travellers are only compensated if trains are delayed for more than 30 minutes.

His request comes as the government faces a decision on who will run the county's rail service in the future.

The winner of the franchise was expected to be announced in December but was pushed back another six months to June.

Now a decision has has been made to delay it even further to November 10 at the earliest.

The Department for Transport has arranged an extension with Southeastern to continue its service the start of April, 2020.

A number of MPs have slammed ministers for making a "mess" of the situation which could see the county lose high-speed links to London.

During an 'urgent question' in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Tugendhat asked the rail minister, Andrew Jones MP, to consider the proposal.

“Reducing delay repay from 30-minutes to 15-minute delays will have a significant impact for commuters in West Kent, given that most journeys are between 40 minutes and just over an hour to London," he said.

"It will also help financially, given the extraordinary cost of regular commuting to London, and means that passengers can finally get something back.

“That’s why it is important that we do not wait for the delayed franchise to start before introducing this.

I’m pleased the Rail Minister agrees that this doesn’t have to wait and will look into introducing this as soon as possible.”

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