{"id":3197,"date":"2024-01-17T22:37:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T12:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=3197"},"modified":"2024-01-17T22:37:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T12:37:04","slug":"avanti-west-coast-apologies-for-describing-taxpayer-funding-as-free-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=3197","title":{"rendered":"Avanti West Coast apologies for describing taxpayer funding as \u2018free money\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Avanti West Coast described taxpayer funding as \u201cfree money\u201d during an internal meeting with managers, it has been reported.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The train operator apologised after displaying the message on a presentation slide.<\/p>\n

The meeting happened on January 12 and was attended by managing director Andy Mellors said Novara Media, which first reported the incident.<\/p>\n

It published an image showing a slide with the title: \u201cRoll-up, roll-up get your free money here!\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another slide explained how train operators are paid bonuses by the Government even if services are not run completely to schedule, under the service quality regime (SQR).<\/p>\n

This included the statement: \u201cSound too good to be true? Well on this occasion \u2013 it isn\u2019t \u2013 it\u2019s the absolute truth!\u201d<\/p>\n

In September last year, Avanti West Coast\u2019s operating contact was renewed by the Department for Transport for up to nine years, with Transport Secretary Mark Harper claiming it was \u201cback on track\u201d following major disruption.<\/p>\n

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch told Novara Media: \u201cAvanti is one of the worst rail companies in terms of performance and how it treats rail staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor senior management to produce a PowerPoint slide bragging about the Government paying them public money is a disgrace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government has the mandate over Avanti and should never have given them a long-term nine-year contract award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the company feels emboldened to boast that they get \u2018free money\u2019 is down to the ridiculous system of rail ownership in this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately profit driven companies who receive huge public subsidies have failed to deliver for railway workers and passengers alike. And that\u2019s why we need public ownership of the entire network.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: \u201cThis does not represent Avanti West Coast\u2019s view of the service quality regime and was an isolated incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese slides were an attempt to explain how the SQR works to some of our colleagues, but the language used in this presentation was regrettable and we apologise for this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service quality regime is a robust and independent audit which we take very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been demonstrated to hold us to account to drive up standards as we strive to continually improve our customer service.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avanti West Coast described taxpayer funding as \u201cfree money\u201d during an internal meeting with managers, it has been reported. The train operator apologised after displaying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,387,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-railways","category-scotlands-railway","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}