Chaotic Govia is not derailed
BRITAIN’S biggest train operator will hold on to its franchise despite a chaotic summer of new timetables.
But Govia Thameslink Railway, which carries 273 million passengers each year, will make no profit this year and must fork out £15million on improvements.
Delays and cancellations which began in May were dubbed “unacceptable” by the Government yesterday.
GTR, which is majority-owned by transport group Go-Ahead and runs lines such as the troubled Southern Railway, has already contributed £15million to compensate passengers.
As well as no profit this year, the amount it is able to make until the franchise ends in September 2021, will be capped.
Passengers of Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern will determine what “tangible” improvements will be funded by the package.
The Department for Transport concludes the problems on the network were caused by “a series of mistakes and complex issues across the rail industry” but resisted calls for the franchise to be terminated, arguing that this would “cause further and undue disruption for passengers and is not an appropriate course of action”.
The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said yesterday: “Performance after the May timetable change was unacceptable.
“This action announced today holds GTR to account appropriately and will benefit passengers.
“The department will continue to monitor closely the performance of GTR, particularly during the upcoming December timetable change. These measures to not make GTR immune from further sanctions in the event of any subsequent failure to perform.” Go-Ahead chief executive David Brown said it remains on track to meet its annual financial forecasts.
He added: “We recognise that the industry-wide failures in delivering the May timetable created huge difficulties for our customers and we are very sorry for poor service. “Since the introduction of the interim timetable in July, performance has greatly improved, and now includes over 200 new services for customers, with further additional services to be introduced this month.” Analysts expect lost profit to be made up by the Southeastern franchise.
Shares fell 30p to 1612p.