Under-fire rail operator, Avanti West Coast was awarded over £17m in taxpayers’ money by ministers in performance and management fees in just over a year, despite being the worst performing operator on the rail network.
The figures from 2020 and 2021, the latest figures for which data is available, include an almost £4m bonus to Avanti for ‘operational performance and customer satisfaction’.
This huge sum, signed-off by Transport Ministers, came despite Avanti being the worst performing operator in the country with almost half of their services arriving late.
The operator have come under renewed criticism for slashing services between major cities by up to two-thirds on the West Coast Mainline, and on Tuesday passengers were forced to climb a fence at Oxenholme station after being locked in as their train arrived 100 minutes late.
Avanti West Coast, whose contract is due for renewal in October, already have the lowest passenger satisfaction rating possible, a figure the Transport Minister Baroness Vere admitted is “terrible”.
Despite this, the Department for Transport confirmed it will continue to hand over millions of pounds in management fees, after ruling out fining the operator for the failing service.
Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, has warned her counterpart Grant Shapps that the government “cannot continue to wash their hands of responsibility, nor reward failure” as the damage to the economy from the ongoing failure of the private operator mounts.
She has renewed calls for ministers to urgently demand a plan from the operator for the full restoration of services, claw-back taxpayers’ money for services that are not running, and if an urgent plan to restore services is not put in place, strip Avanti of the contract.
Commenting Shadow Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh MP said:
“This fiasco is causing real damage to the regional economy, passengers and the public.
This government has willingly sat back and rewarded failure, handing over millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money for an abysmal service. Under the absurd system they have created, passengers always come last.
It’s time for Ministers to wake up, do their job and hold this failing operator to account.
They should demand a plan from the operator to urgently restore these services, claw-back taxpayers’ money being handed over for services that aren’t running, and if they do not act, they should be stripped of the contract.”
