MPs from Sutton and Croydon bridged the political divide and have called for harsher penalties for companies who run a poor service.

Tom Brake, MP for Carshalton and Wallington, urged the Government to put further pressure on Southern and Thameslink Rail to improve their service.

The Liberal Democrat wants the minimum threshold for Delay Repay to be reduced from 30 minutes to 15 minutes and to impose a 50 per cent compensation of the single fare for a 15 to 29 minute delay.

He also wants 100 per cent compensation for delays of 30 minutes or more.

He said: "The level of delays and cancellations on Southern and Thameslink Rail is unacceptable. These companies must be held accountable for the stress and daily headaches they cause commuters.

"The Government must put this amendment into effect immediately, so the train companies have an even stronger incentive to get their services in order and passengers are at least properly compensated for the disruption they experience."

The Liberal Democrat made the announcement after Southern, Southeastern and Thameslink Rail were blasted by commuters who put the companies in the bottom three for customer satisfaction in a recently published survey.

Gavin Barwell, MP for Croydon Central, said: "It's something we have included in our manifesto and we will be looking to implement it shortly.

"At the moment our constituents are suffering unacceptable delays and its right that there should be a financial penalty when this happens."

Steve Reed, MP for Croydon North, said: ""That's all very sensible, but we want the service to be automatic and for the train companies to come to commuters when they want to make a claim, not the other way round.

"Staff should be on the platforms to apologise and hand out forms so that people can claim their money back.

"It's extraordinary that people pay so much for such a poor service and it's important that they have a penalty imposed and know how their customers are.

"We'd like to see a penalty payment that comes directly from a train company's profits.

"A company, like Southerm, does not employ enough staff, which can cause delays because there is no train driver or they are late.

"That is a decision made by the company to make more profit at expense of their customers and there needs to be a penalty that shows that cutting staff will not be rewarded and to make that practise impossible."

But train companies have said they offer generous and easy to apply for compensation for their customers.

A spokesman for Govia Thameslink Rail said: "We know punctuality has been particularly poor, making life difficult for our passengers and apologise.

"Many of those delays are outside our control such as lorries hitting one particular low railway bridge in Tulse Hill on average twice a month which has a devastating effect on Thameslink Loop services.

"But we will redouble our efforts with Network Rail to improve punctuality, with Network Rail making track, signalling and other systems more dependable and GTR bringing in new, more reliable trains this spring and still more drivers.

"Improving delay repay compensation is not in our gift and is a matter for the Department for Transport. However, by altering the formula we use to calculate compensation, we have already increased the amount paid to delayed annual and monthly season ticket holders, by 8% on average on January 2."