COMMUTERS were hit by a ‘double whammy’ on Monday, when they were subjected both to reduced services due to Waterloo’s £800million upgrade and unrelated signalling problems.

But it seemed many rail users had taken on board warnings by Network Rail (NR) and South West Trains (SWT) of the disruption that will continue until August 28, and either decided to stay at home or altered their journey times or mode of transport.

Nearly half the platforms at Waterloo will be closed for the next three weeks and 1,000 engineers and trackside staff will be working shifts 24 hours a day to build extensions onto platforms 1-4 and to modify platforms 5-8, so longer, modern trains can run from December. Passengers are being warned of significant disruptions to journeys with queues of up to an hour at Waterloo and key stations along the route.

Rail users were angered on Monday, the first working day of the upgrade, when they were funnelled through a single entry point at the UK’s busiest train station during the evening rush hour, increasing congestion.

Regular commuters, who bought season tickets before news of the reduced services was announced, have called for compensation, but have been advised they are not eligible for a refund.

One Haslemere season-ticket holder, who bought his annual railcard last September before he knew about the station’s partial closure, objected to SWT: “Where is the compensation for season-ticket holders?” he said.

“You are going to be running less trains, you are going to be running more crowded trains. You are asking people to work from home or take time off. That is not even feasible for some people. People are going to have to take unpaid time off work.”

A petition protesting about the lack of compensation has been launched by passenger Alison Bunce, who said: “It just seems very unfair SWT have been telling us for months to work from home or take holiday, and yet those customers who actually can do this will still be paying a full fare for services which they are being advised not to use.”

Passengers seeking compensation have been told that under charter rules, they are only eligible for a refund if trains are delayed and fail to meet the trains timetabled.

A special timetable for August with reduced trains was published earlier this year, and claims for compensation can only be made if those services are delayed, not simply for the August disruption.

An SWT spokesman said: “Passenger compensation will continue to be available as specified in the current Passengers’ Charter, which is available on the SWT website.

“SWT and NR have carried out an extensive 12-month communication campaign encouraging customers to consider their journeys ahead of the major works from August 5-28.”

An extra 1,000 staff will be on hand to help customers travel and a wide reaching ticket acceptance agreement is in place, covering buses, London Underground and other train operators.

“Following discussions between SWT, First/MTR, the incoming operator and the Department for Transport, it has been decided that current passengers charter compensation arrangements will apply for the duration of the works.”

• www.south westtrains.co.uk