The Transport Secretary will meet 5 Mayors from the North of England to discuss rail chaos hitting thousands of travellers.
The meeting comes as the Guardian this morning reports that Labour has called on ministers to claw back £12m in dividends paid by Avanti West Coast to its shareholders last year, when it was subsidised by £343m by the taxpayer.
Figures released by the rail watchdog on yesterday showed that Avanti paid out £12m in 2021-22 from management and performance
fees.
Avanti has been under fire since the summer for cutting back trains on the West Coast main line,cancelling trains at short notice and the lack of availability of tickets
Despite this the Government gave the Company a contract extension
The shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said ministers were “rewarding abject failure with taxpayers’ hard-earned money”.
She added: “It is scandalous that despite the abysmal service, the government has allowed public money to flow into the pockets of shareholders.
“It’s time the government did their job and hold this failing operator to account.
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