Train operators to lose grant for replacement buses [Telegraph]





Date: 15/02/2012

Ministers plan to end an anomaly, exposed by The Daily Telegraph last year, which allows train firms that also own bus companies to receive grants for providing alternative road services when stretches of the rail network are down. There has been growing anger at a practice known as “bustitution” - which has seen train operators pocket millions of pounds from days of disruption while their passengers endure longer journeys. Train firms receive compensation from Network Rail when their lines are unavailable, but passengers forced onto bus services are usually unable to claim a partial refund for the delay. [From Mark Bartlett]


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Train operators to lose grant for replacement buses

Telegraph

Rail operators will no longer be allowed to make money from forcing passengers onto replacement buses at the weekend, under new Government plans.

Related images

Rule 55? No - never heard of it... a red light at Haymarket on Sunday 29 October 2006 for a westbound rail-replacement bus service. The line was closed here due to engineering works in connection with construction of the new platform 0.
Location: Haymarket
Company: Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
29/10/2006 John Furnevel
Replacement bus services waiting at the Gordon Street entrance to Glasgow Central on 29th December 2007 during Network Rail engineering works.
Location: Glasgow Central
Company: Glasgow Central Station (Caledonian Railway)
29/12/2007 Graham Morgan
A scene of considerable activity at Didcot station on Saturday 30 October 2010. From left to right there are FGW Turbostars at platforms 5 and 4; a Cross Country service has just departed east from platform 3 towards Reading with a service to Bournemouth, while a FGW HST is arriving from the west at platform 2. The increased activity is due to closure of the line towards Oxford for engineering work and the need for rail replacement buses, two of which can be seen in the car park on the right.
Location: Didcot Parkway
Company: Great Western Railway
30/10/2010 John McIntyre


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