How much delay money goes back to passengers?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

We were talking about this recently.

Thanks to the latest edition of Rail User express (online newsletter from Railfuture) just receive for this:

TRAIN FIRMS GET ^167m FOR DELAYS BUT GIVE COMMUTERS JUST ^50m

Train companies have been accused of ^ripping off^ passengers by tens of millions of pounds a year over compensation for late and cancelled trains. The operators were paid ^167m by Network Rail during 2013/14 for delays caused by track, signals and other infrastructure failures, for which the taxpayer-funded company is responsible. However, the train operators handed over an estimated
^50m to passengers. The revelation sparked demands for a fundamental change to the rules. ^ from a story in the Evening Standard, 29 Sept 2014.

I note this is a nationwide (?) figure, so the proportions in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) land may well be different.

Copyright note says "As always, feel free to forward RUEx to a colleague, or to reproduce items in your own newsletter (quoting sources)."  Hope I'm OK - this forum is the coffeeshop's newsletter

[ChrisB]

It is an *estimated* figure, without explanation of calculation or source....take it with a pinch of salt.

Bear in mind that TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) have a lot of costs themselves in keeping track of delay minutes, so need compensation themselves. It's not just customers/passengers

[grahame]

Bear in mind that TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) have a lot of costs themselves in keeping track of delay minutes, so need compensation themselves.

Not only admin costs, but costs of extra taxis, buses, staff overtime / extra shifts, etc ...  agreed, Chris; the post was just a start point for a discussion we were having the other day.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From Get Reading:

First Great Western handed nearly ^20m in compensation for delays to services

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) received the second highest payout in compensation for delays to its services last year

Nearly ^20million was paid out to First Great Western last year by Network Rail as compensation for delays to its services.

The net figure of ^18,813,455 was the second highest out of 20 train companies which Network Rail paid out to.

Southern received the largest payout (^28,535,886) while Virgin West Coast, South West Trains and East Midlands trains received substantial amounts of ^15,314,056, ^12,814,404 and ^11,051,269 respectively.

Signal failures and broken rails are among the issues which can contribute to Network Rail having to hand money over to rail operators.

The figure does not take into account any payments made the other way, and relates to unplanned delays only.