It is no secret that there is a serious problem with our rail industry.

Our newspapers are littered with headlines of ‘travel misery’, ‘major disruptions’, and ‘yet another strike’. All of this chaos came at a higher price than ever too, following the latest fare hike last March. Four train companies were also found to have unlawfully prosecuted over 74,000 passengers, following false claims of fare dodging.

Yet amidst this chaos, there have been glimmers of good news for commuters.

A £25m compensation pot has been made available for South West Trains passengers. This is the result of a legal claim that I launched which argued that passengers were overcharged for their train journeys.

How did this happen, you ask? Anyone who holds a Travelcard should only have to pay the fare from the boundary of their Travelcard zone to their destination beyond that boundary. For example, if someone with a Zone 1-4 Travelcard travels from Waterloo to Reading, they should only be paying for a ticket from Zone 5 to Reading.

My lawsuit argued that this was not, however, sufficiently offered to commuters. I’m pleased to say that this settlement means that a compensation pot has now been agreed for up to 1.4 million passengers.

Although the settlement was reached without admission of liability, it constitutes a landmark legal moment as it is the largest settlement in the opt-out collective action regime in the UK.

I have spent the last six years working with my legal team to bring this claim against many of the train operators through the court systems.

I am now on a mission to make sure passengers claim what they are entitled to.

Anyone who owned a Travelcard and travelled on South West Trains but was not offered a boundary fare for which they were eligible between 1 October 2015 and 20 August 2017 can now claim redress from the fund.

Claiming compensation is a simple process – it takes less than 5 minutes and is entirely free. If you think you were affected, simply go to BoundaryFares.com/claim.

I’m delighted to see money finally going back to passengers. I’m sure, having just bought their hefty season tickets, commuters are also pleased to have something back in their pockets.

It is, therefore, also refreshing to see the new government engage with genuine, wholesale reform of the industry. Hearing that there will be new legislation to improve the railways must have been music to every commuter’s ears.

As always, time will tell. I’m sure we will have to read the fine print of the legislation to know how much change will really be effected.

It has been made clear already that there is no guarantee of fares going down. There will, however, be a new ‘best fare guarantee’ which promises passengers that they will only be paying the lowest fare for their journey.

This may not sound like much of a promise. However, my ongoing legal claims against other train companies make the argument that this has not always been the case.

There is, therefore, light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. The country is finally taking seriously reform of the industry for future generations.