Rail firms to pay for chaos

Passengers' journeys have been severly disrupted

Rail passengers whose trains were delayed or cancelled during the rail crisis will receive compensation but the amount has not yet been agreed.

The announcement follows a meeting of rail bosses and Tony Blair at Downing Street.

The prime minister stressed his determination to ensure the rail networks gets back to normal as soon as possible.

But Transport Minister Lord Macdonald admitted it could take until the new year for a full service to resume.

We will be looking for adequate compensation to reflect the passenger experience. It must go beyond normal charter arrangements

Stuart Francis, Rail Passengers Council

Mr Blair told the rail bosses compensation for season-ticket holders should be made a a priority.

Lord Macdonald said the issue was now being decided by the rail companies, the Strategic Rail Authority and the Rail Passengers Council.

But he declined to say how much compensation passengers should get.

"That is very much for the industry to work out.

"There are penalty regimes involved in this. We would expect to hear more details in the next week or so."

The chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, Sir Alastair Morton, refused to be drawn on whether passengers will be compensated in full for all the journeys they have missed because of disruption caused since the Hatfield crash and recent flooding.

Lord Macdonald: Compensation details announced next week

"They will receive compensation. I'm not going to make a premature estimate," he said.

"I'm leaving the quantum entirely open to the discussion that is about to happen."

Stuart Francis, of the Rail Passengers Council, said the issue of compensation should be resolved as soon as possible.

Sustainable timetables

He said any measures should go beyond the normal penalty clauses that the train operators offer.

"We will be looking for adequate compensation to reflect the passenger experience. It must go beyond normal charter arrangements," he said.

"The fact is that trains were running on days that should have been declared void. The industry has to take a broad look at this. We will be trying our best to get the best deal for passengers."

The floods made rail delays worse

Lord Macdonald said the 16 rail companies which are still experiencing serious disruption should have sustainable timetables in place next week to allow passengers plan their journeys with confidence.

He said rail companies will also have to have clear timetables in place for the Christmas and New Year periods with better information available to the public.

Lord Macdonald said that Railtrack and the train operators were doing all they could to restore services to normal.

But he said it would be the new year before that happened.

Currently 75 miles of track have been re-railed, a quarter of the 300 miles which needs to be done, and 30% of speed restrictions have been lifted.

Sir Alastair Morton said: "There is a feeling of progress and gaining momentum."

Lord Macdonald added: "In our meeting the prime minister has made clear his determination to ensure that the rail network gets back to normal as soon as possible.

"Great efforts are being made by Railtrack to try to make sure that re-railing is completed as quickly as possible.

"Rail industry companies were able to assure us that they were all working closely together.

"We will be monitoring very closely all parts of the industry to ensure that they can deliver on that plan."