A train company whose passengers were particularly badly affected by the severe early-winter weather has announced it is changing its compensation scheme.

Southeastern faced criticism when it announced in January that it had ran an average of 82.04% of trains on time in 2010, fractionally beating the 82.0% target below which it had to pay compensation.

Some MPs and passengers questioned the figures, but an independent audit report by the University of Sheffield, commissioned by the rail firm, said punctuality figures were correctly and accurately validated.

Keith Ludeman, group chief executive of Go-Ahead and chairman of Govia - Southeastern's parent companies - said that from this summer, Southeastern would move to a "delay repay" scheme, meaning that any passengers delayed by 30 minutes or more can claim compensation.

Mr Ludeman said: "This brings it (Southeastern) into line with our other rail franchises. This is an arrangement that will be welcomed by passengers and rail user groups."

Southeastern also announced that its Javelin high-speed rail services introduced in December 2009 are to be extended.

From May 23, Javelins will run from Maidstone West via Strood to London's St Pancras station on a trial basis.

The trial will see three London-bound rush-hour morning trains operating and three Maidstone-bound rush-hour evening ones. In addition there will be one Javelin service leaving St Pancras for Maidstone West in the early morning and one leaving Maidstone West for St Pancras mid-evening.

Tunde Olatunji, manager of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus, said on Friday: "Today's announcement confirming the extension of Southeastern's franchise will be received with mixed feelings by those passengers who have seen a deterioration in performance, sharp fare increases and little or no compensation for the delays."

He added that the change in compensation arrangements was "the silver lining for passengers who have felt aggrieved about the failure to get compensation last year".