Rail chaos – I got £20 after £100 taxi home
ASOUTHPORT pensioner who was left with a £100 taxi bill due to cancelled trains revealed she was given just £20.70 compensation.
Bobby Hankey, 81, had booked a return train ticket between Southport and Manchester Airport for a Spanish holiday last month, only to end up stranded at the airport amid a host of cancelled Northern Rail trains.
Bobby, along with friend David Parkinson, ended up taking a black cab to their homes in Southport and were left with a £100 fare. After writing for Northern Rail to request compensation, the cost of the £20.70 return train ticket was refunded.
The pensioner said she was happy to get something back, but remained unhappy to have been left with such a big bill through no fault of her own.
She said: “I didn’t actually expect anything. I was surprised that they even did bother.
“Other people buy these exensive season tickets and year passes and are having all sorts of problems, so for me to get anything is a bonus. What they’re going to do for other people, I don’t know.
“I was surprised to get anything but I am a bit miffed that I had to pay £100 and just resigned to having lost that money.”
An independent inquiry to problems on Northern Rail has been announced after its services were blighted by cancellations, delays and the introduction of an emergency timetable.
Announcing the inquiry, a Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Northern and GTR passengers are encountering totally unacceptable service levels and the Transport Secretary and Rail Minister have been clear it is their priority that this is put right as soon as possible and passengers are compensated for the disruption.
“An independent inquiry will now be carried out to determine how this went so badly wrong and to make sure this does not happen again.”