Chiltern Railways has been accused of covertly overcharging customers since February.

On February 4, the train company introduced a new ticket type called Super Off-Peak, available at High Wycombe, Beaconsfield and other stations along the line.

The new ticket offers a big discount for those travelling off peak - but the company has been criticised for not offering the option on the 'quick menu' on ticket machines.

A disgruntled train user explained the issue to the Bucks Free Press.

He said: "The problem is that the ticket machines are set up to initially display a ‘quick menu’ offering the most popular choice of fares, such as travel cards and return journeys to London, but this excludes the super off-peak fares.

"For example, if you’re travelling from High Wycombe to London, even if it's a on a weekend or evening, the ‘quick menu’ will only display the standard off-peak return fare of £22.10, not the super off-peak fare of £15.

"I suspect, when presented with this, most people would (quite rightly) expect the 'quick menu' to offer them the cheapest option available so would purchase the one on offer, for £22.10.

"Passengers that are lucky enough to know about the super off-peak option and who prefer not to be over charged, must ignore the options on the ‘quick menu’ and instead, select ‘other fares’.

"They then have to navigate through a further series of rather cumbersome menus before securing the ticket they should have been offered in the first place."

He added that it is "highly likely" anyone buying a weekend or evening ticket will have spent more money on it than needed because of the quick menu.

He said: "I’ve made Chiltern Railways aware of this issue, both in February and again more recently, but there has been no commitment to fix it. In fact, they don’t even seem to accept there’s a problem.

"I appreciate it’s been far from normal service for much of the past few months but it’s hard to imagine they would be quite so apathetic if the reverse situation was occurring, i.e. if their ticket machines were regularly under charging customers.

"I recommend that anyone who has evidence they purchased a standard off-peak ticket on a weekend or a weekday evening, or at any other time since February 4 when they were entitled to a super off-peak fare, should contact Chiltern Railways customer services and ask for a refund of the amount they were overcharged."

The Bucks Free Press asked Chiltern Railways about the issue, but it does not sound like the company is planning to do anything about it.

A spokesman said: "The ticket machines at Chiltern Railways stations have a ‘quick select’ menu, with the most popular fares made easily available to our customers. It is not possible to change the ‘quick select’ ticket options based on the time of day.

"Removal of the ‘quick select’ screen would result in customers taking much longer to purchase a ticket and would be more of an inconvenience.

“We are keen to promote our new Super Off Peak fares and have advertised these widely.

"As well as on the ticket machines our Super Off Peak fares are available for customers to purchase through our website, our app and booking offices.”