Wrong track

RAIL companies may feel they have the travelling public over an oil barrel and that, with passenger numbers up and likely to increase further with the higher costs of motoring, big bonuses are the order of the day. But this is no excuse for complacency and inefficiency in their treatment of customers.

Network Rail is set to miss many of its annual targets and faces being hauled before the Office of Rail Regulation to explain itself. Yet, considering this failure and taking into account their own experience of deteriorating service standards and rising prices, passengers will find it difficult to comprehend why the company’s top executives received more than £2m in performance-related bonuses last year.

And, while passengers may accept a few delays caused by the weather, particularly considering the level of snowfall which Network Rail is keen to offer up as an excuse, they are less likely to forgive the poor communication which the track-and-infrastructure company admits it got badly wrong and which added unnecessary confusion and distress to countless delayed journeys.

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In austerity Britain, the railways are going through a comparative boom. But in spite of their good fortune, neither Network Rail nor the train-operating companies can afford to take the paying public for granted.

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