Avanti West Coast rewarded with £6.5m in bonuses

Avanti West Coast was awarded millions of pounds worthy of taxpayers' wealth successful show bonuses past year, caller figures show.

The bid relation has been criticised by passengers implicit delays and mediocre work this year.

But the authorities handed the steadfast much than £6.5m successful 2021 for "operational performance" and "customer experience".

The authorities said the show interest was "based connected information from earlier the existent play of disruption".

But Labour has called the payments a "scandalous" discarded of taxpayers' funds.

Details of the Department for Transport's (DfT) payments to rider obstruction operators amusement that the bonuses related to Avanti's show betwixt April and September 2021.

It was rewarded for "operational performance, lawsuit experience, fiscal show and absorption fees".

However during immoderate of that period, betwixt July and September 2021, Avanti bid services fell by 21.1% and its trains were punctual lone 55.8% of the time.

It besides received 9,000 complaints implicit the aforesaid period, the highest of immoderate bid operator.

Since then, Avanti has travel nether occurrence for slashing its timetables successful August, with trains betwixt London and Manchester the worst affected.

Services were chopped from 7 trains per hr to a minimum of 4 and summons income were suspended, blaming "severe unit shortages".

The company's declaration had been owed to expire connected 16 October but the authorities has fixed it until 1 April to amended its performance.

The relation launched a caller timetable this period with an accrued fig of trains.

Shadow transport caput Louise Haigh accused ministers of rewarding "abject failure" and "handing implicit millions of pounds successful show bonuses and fees to this failing operator".

"Rather than clasp operators to relationship for shambolic performance, ministers are doling retired taxpayer-funded bonuses," she said.

The DfT said that the show people was independently assessed and Avanti was being held to relationship for the operations and transportation that falls wrong its control.

"We person enactment Avanti connected a abbreviated term, six period contract, arsenic they rotation retired captious improvements and work upgrades and proceed to show the concern closely," a connection said.

Avanti referred property queries astir the payments to the Department for Transport.