Southeastern pocketed £18.2 million from compensation claims for rail disruption last year but only passed on £2.2 million to customers.

Commuters said this amounted to a net gain of nearly £16 million for the train operator from payments it received from Network Rail for unplanned disruption.

After initial uncertainty over whether the figure also included planned disruption, Southeastern admitted the £18.2 million figure was for unscheduled delays.

It insisted the company did not profit from the surplus and urged commuters to use its compensation schemes.

This week, the Government revealed that for the year 2015/16, the amount repaid by Southeastern to disgrunted passengers as part of its Delay Repay scheme was up 68% on the previous year.

The £2.2 million repayment put the train company in the UK’s top five for payouts but the difference between payment it has received from Network Rail and what it paid out to consumers has prompted anger from commuters.

Andrew Stott, secretary of Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association, said: “Now that Network Rail is part of the public sector and receives a large Government grant each year, it is essentially taxpayers money that is funding this compensation.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to use limited resources to improve services and reduce delays rather than reward the companies involved for failure?” - Andrew Stott, Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association

He added: “Wouldn’t it be better to use limited resources to improve services and reduce delays rather than reward the companies involved for failure?”

Southeastern said it does not make a profit on the compensation and that the money it receives goes towards paying for things like replacement bus services, loss of revenue and reimbursement of track access fees.

A spokesman said: “We understand the frustration passengers feel when delays occur.

“We urge passengers to claim Delay Repay as we compensate, no matter what the cause, if a journey is delayed by 30 minutes or more.

“We publicise this heavily and are finding more people are claiming, but not everybody does and we would urge them to please do so as it is their right.

“In regards to money that comes from Network Rail, it is incorrect to say we make a profit.

“In fact, 48p of every £1 we get from all ticket sales goes directly to Network Rail for track access and other leasing, which equates to hundreds of millions of pounds a year.”