Rail firms ‘keeping disruption payouts’

TRAIN companies have been accused of passing on to passengers only a “tiny fraction” of the tens of millions of pounds they receive from Network Rail (NR) for disruption to services.

TRAIN companies have been accused of passing on to passengers only a “tiny fraction” of the tens of millions of pounds they receive from Network Rail (NR) for disruption to services.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association said NR paid rail operators £184 million last year for problems which led to late or cancelled trains, but gave passengers hit by disruption only a fraction of the money.

The union said Department for Transport figures showed that only five of the 23 train operators told ministers how much they gave back to passengers in 2011, and on average that amounted to £650,000 per company. If that applied across all 23 firms, it would mean less than £15m was paid out to passengers last year.

General secretary Manuel Cortes said it was “a cash merry-go-round in which the passenger gets taken for a ride.”