Southern must use profits to compensate suffering passengers
Croydon North MP Steve Reed has called on Southern Rail’s parent company to use their soaring profits to compensate long-suffering passengers.
Go-Ahead, which owns Southern Rail’s operator Govia, reported profits of nearly £100 million – despite Southern’s continuing poor service which has left many commuters facing endless delays and cancellations.
Passengers are currently entitled to a small amount of compensation if their train is delayed by over 30 minutes.
Steve Reed MP said:
Coming a day after the Government handed £20 million to failing Southern Rail, these profits are a slap in the face to my constituents who have to suffer regular delays and cancellations.
The company is making profit by running a sub-standard service. The money should be used to compensate Southern Rail’s passengers for the misery they endure using this dreadful service. The public are forced to pay ever-increasing fares while the service gets worse and worse, instead of pocketing the profits Southern’s incompetent bosses should hand the money back to passengers as an apology.
Steven Reed is Labour MP for Croydon North and Shadow Minister for Children and Families. In 2018 his private member’s bill on reducing violent mental health restraint became law. In June 2019 he launched Labour’s civil society strategy outlining radical plans to empower citizens and communities.
Steve chairs the Cooperative Councils Innovation Network, co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for London, was Leader of Lambeth Council 2006-12 where he led the council’s children’s services to become best-rated in the country and pioneered the public-health approach to tackling violent youth crime. He worked in publishing for 16 years and was an elected trade union branch secretary.