17M Paid To Avanti West Coast Is Reward For Failure Says Labor Railway Transport

Figures from 2019-20 and 2020-21 include nearly £4m in bonuses at Avanti for “operational performance”, “customer experience” and “acting as a good and efficient operator”. At the same time, the company has increased prices, with an open return from Manchester to London – just a two-hour journey – costing £369.40. The performance-related charges, signed off by transport ministers, came despite Avanti being the worst operator in the country with almost half of its services arriving late. In the past two years alone the company has received more than 50,000 complaints, the most of any other operator and almost double that of its east coast mainline counterpart, LNER. Avanti, co-owned by Italian National Rail, has come under renewed criticism for cutting services between major cities by up to two-thirds on the West Coast Central Line, and earlier this week passengers were forced to climb over a fence at Oxenholme station in Cumbria after being locked out as their train arrived 100 minutes late. Avanti West Coast, whose contract is up for renewal in October, already has the lowest possible passenger satisfaction rating, a figure which Transport Minister Charlotte Vere said last month was “appalling”. Despite this, the Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed it will continue to hand over millions of pounds in management fees after ruling out fining the operator for failing the service. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh has warned her counterpart, Grant Shapps, that the government “cannot continue to wash its hands of responsibility, nor reward failure”, as the damage to the economy mounts from the ongoing private company failure. He renewed calls for ministers to urgently demand a plan from Avanti to fully restore services, recover taxpayers’ money for services not being performed and if an urgent service restoration plan is not put in place, remove the company from contract. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “This fiasco is causing real damage to the regional economy, passengers and the public,” Hague said. “This government has willingly sat back and rewarded failure by handing over millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money for an abysmal service. According to the absurd system they have created, passengers always arrive last. It is time for ministers to wake up, do their job and hold this failed operator to account. “They should demand from the provider a plan to urgently restore these services, recover the taxpayers’ money handed over for services that are not performed and, if they don’t act, they have no business keeping the contract.” An Avanti spokesman blamed the reduction in service on “the current industrial relations climate which has led to severe staff shortages”. It apologized to customers for the “huge disappointment and inconvenience this will cause”. The company is considering a request from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, to lift first class restrictions while the reduced timetable is in place to fit more people on trains. The Department for Transport said: “Departmental performance pay at train operating companies is independently assessed through scoring criteria based on factors such as operational performance, efficiency and customer satisfaction. “We meet regularly with Avanti West Coast to discuss its performance and delivery for passengers. This includes ensuring it develops effective plans to improve its services, including mitigating issues outside its control.”

title: " 17M Paid To Avanti West Coast Is Reward For Failure Says Labor Railway Transport Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Wanda Bejjani”

title: " 17M Paid To Avanti West Coast Is Reward For Failure Says Labor Railway Transport Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-05” author: “Lucille Gahagan”

title: " 17M Paid To Avanti West Coast Is Reward For Failure Says Labor Railway Transport Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-15” author: “Arturo Dipietro”