AVANTI WEST COAST PAYS MORE THAN £20M IN SUMMER DELAY REFUNDS

Avanti West Coast paid passengers more than £20m in compensation for delayed or cancelled trains over three summer months, according to published payout figures. The operator paid £9.3m in the four weeks to 25 July and a further £12.2m over the following eight weeks. Its compensation bill exceeded £50m in 2025-26 and is expected to exceed £70m this financial year. The Office of Rail and Road recorded 3.8 million successful delay claims across Britain’s railway between 1 April and 25 July, 55 per cent more than in the equivalent 2025 period.

In the four weeks from mid-June to mid-July, operators received more than 1.2 million claims, compared with 877,583 a year earlier, according to the regulator. Avanti recorded 287,230 claims from late June to 18 July, the highest total among operators in that period. Office of Rail and Road figures indicate that fewer than half of Avanti’s trains ran on time in July, when passengers faced an average delay of 19 minutes. Avanti said it was responsible for 23 per cent of delays lasting at least 15 minutes between May and August, citing infrastructure problems and trespass among the causes. An Avanti spokesperson said: “We apologise to customers affected by train delays.”

Department for Transport figures put rail passenger delay compensation at £150m in 2024-25, up 8 per cent on the previous year. Avanti accounted for £40.5m of that total, about 27 per cent, according to the department. Under current contracts, the department pays operators fees while taxpayers bear gains and losses from ticket sales and refunds. Avanti is due to enter public ownership next year as part of Great British Railways.