Tom Morrison slams £6.5 million bonus of tax payers money for failing Avanti

Tom Morrison slammed the government for awarding a £6.5 million bonus to the Avanti West Cost franchise despite failing services and record numbers of complaints.

"I'm truly stunned. At a time when million are cutting back and trying to make it through the winter, this government awards a whopping £6.5 million of tax payer's cash to the bosses of a rail franchise that is failing the entire North West" said Tom.

During the period for which Avanti have been awarded this bonus, Avanti train services fell by 21.1% and its trains were punctual only 55.8% of the time and received more customer complaints than any other operator. 

"Once again, failure is rewarded by this government. But we're the ones paying for it. Any other government would be reviewing Avanti's contract and holding it to account for the increasingly poor service, not awarding a new one and giving "performance-related" bungs of tax payer's money" he added.