Britain’s largest rail operators to receive compensation due to adverse weather conditions

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Britain’s largest rail operators will receive millions of pounds in compensation as adverse weather conditions cause transport chaos, it has been reported.

While passengers endure cancellations and delays, Network Rail will have to pay out to private rail companies.

Cancellations and delays caused by bad weather, engineering work and other disruption between 2011 and 2017 cost Network Rail more than £2bn in compensation costs.

Over the same period of time, passengers received just £187m in compensation for disruption to services, The Telegraph reported.

A delay of one minute results in train companies automatically receiving compensation, but passengers have to be delayed by half an hour and also fill out a form.

Tim Loughton, a Conservative MP and former minister, said passengers should receive compensation automatically.

“It’s a complete scandal. They are being paid for failure, they are profiting from delays and cancellations. There is no way that they should be holding onto that money,” he said.

“It is a double whammy for commuters whose journeys are being wrecked to know that the train operator is benefiting financially.”

Stephen Joseph, executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport, said the Department for Transport was blocking reform of the system.

“People are having to apply and go through complicated, bureaucratic processes to get any form of compensation. It should be simple and automatic,” Mr Joseph said.

Travel chaos is expected as commuters have been warned to expect major disruption as snowfall looks poised to blanket Britain, with the country potentially facing the coldest weather since 1991.

The Met Office said more than 20cm of the white stuff could settle by Wednesday as a wintry blast dubbed the “Beast from the East” will cause temperatures to tumble.

Issuing amber warnings for snow showers on Tuesday morning – covering the South East, the East Midlands and the North East – the forecaster said up to 15cm could fall in just a few hours.

A yellow warning was also put in place for vast swathes of the UK – with the snowfall predicted to cripple much of the country’s travel network during rush hour.

Rail services in parts of eastern and southern England will be cancelled in anticipation and Greater Anglia, which serves Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, is ending services early on Monday at 10pm to enable trains to return to depots and stations before the forecast snow storms begin.

Some empty trains will run throughout the night in a bid to keep lines clear for the morning commute.

The Independent contacted the Department for Transport for comment.