Searchable article text
RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january/february 2024 :: RMTnews
18
RMT research has found that
less than half of eligible rail
passengers who are entitled to
compensation under the delay
repay scheme are putting in a
claim.
Only 47 per cent are putting
in delay repay claims with rail
companies when their train is
delayed by a certain amount of
time, meaning train operators
are sitting on potentially tens
of millions of pounds.
According Department for
Transport figures passengers
received £101 million in
compensation in the year
2022-23 for delayed services,
13 per cent more than before
the pandemic, even though
overall passenger numbers
remain slightly down on 2019.
This means that it is highly
likely that around £100 million
has not been claimed, allowing
private rail operators to
artificially boost profits and
revenues.
New data published by the
Office of Rail and Road also
revealed that train operators
compensate themselves at
public expense for their own
failure using the complex
‘Schedule 8’ procedure to
claim more than £132 million
last year for ‘lost revenue’ from
the taxpayer via Network Rail
as a result of unplanned
disruption.
Schedule 8 payments are
made between different parts
of the industry, Network Rail
and the various train operating
companies, to ensure that
companies don’t lose out on
revenues because of each
other’s failings.
They are paid on the basis
of formulas attributing
responsibility and calculating
lost revenue to ensure that
operators have ‘financial
comfort’ that they will not
suffer for events beyond their
control including late services
by another operator, for
example. Revenue loss
because of planned disruption
is covered by a separate
compensation regime,
‘Schedule 4’.
RMT general secretary Mick
Lynch said that it was
scandalous that private rail
companies were effectively
profiting from running a poor
service a situation that could
be ended with a single
integrated ticket system
alongside a nationalised rail
operator.
"It would mean the
overwhelming majority of
delay repay claims could be
done automatically and
passengers who had to make a
claim, could do so in
confidence that rail companies
were not profiting from their
failures.
"The fleecing of taxpayers
and passengers by profit
hungry rail companies must
come to an end and a fully
publicly owned and controlled
railway is the best way to
achieve that," he said.
MONEY-GO-ROUND
PROFITEERING
Rail companies sitting on millions of unclaimed
delay re-pay pay outs