22.05.14
Southeastern pays £1.6m in compensation after landslips
Southeastern trains has paid out more than £1.5m in compensation to its customers, after the wet winter weather caused major landslips on its routes.
The sum of the pay-outs, which was10 times the figure paid out in the same period last year, came after a series of landslips closed part of the route between Hastings, Tunbridge Wells and London.
Speaking at a public meeting in Tunbridge Wells, Mike Gibson, who is public affairs manager at Southeastern, said: “In the 16 weeks to 1 April 2013, we paid out about £150,000 in compensation for delayed and cancelled trains.
“In the four weeks to 1 April this year that figure had risen to £1.6m.”
The £1.6m figure covers just the first three months of this year, and is a record level of pay-outs for the network under the 'delay repay' scheme - with additional cash paid out to the worst-affected passengers.
Michelle Ulyatt, media relations manager at Southeastern, told RTM that the level of compensation represented how seriously the firm had taken the disruption caused.
“Obviously, one of the key learning points for us, as well as learning from the incidents, is making sure we communicate better with our passengers when things like this happen,” she said. “So, in recognition of that we thought it was the right thing to do to make the highest levels of compensatory pay-outs to customers."
She said the firm had been working hard with Network Rail to come up with a plan to ensure services were restored to previous levels as much as possible.
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