London Midland hands out 127,000 tickets over rail chaos
More than 125,000 free and discount tickets were issued by rail bosses in just three months as part of a £7 million compensation package for travellers who suffered months of disruption, it has emerged.
For more than two months at the end of last year London Midland passengers were forced to check for daily updates on whether their trains would even run, while many were forced to get off miles away from their destination and change to other services.
The problems came after more than 30 drivers left the organisation within a short space of time, meaning the company could not fulfil all of its scheduled timetable commitments.
Bosses have since said that they have addressed the driver shortage while agreeing the compensation package with the Department for Transport.
The compensation package included five days of free travel across the London Midland network for season ticket holders who were affected by the disruption, and cheap fares on routes between Birmingham and London, Crewe and Liverpool.
A total of 127,000 tickets were issued, with 25,500 individuals applying.
Now, the firm has to extend the deadline for people to claim compensation in a bid to get more people to come forward and make a claim.The scheme had been due to finish at the end of March but that had been extended until April 30.
The firm has published an apology on its website saying it had let customers down after attracting heavy criticism over the disruption, which saw more than 900 scheduled journeys scrapped.
A London Midland spokesman said: "We are pleased that so many people have come forward to claim their free tickets, each of which offers a day's unlimited travel on our network. We feel this gives customers flexibility over how they use their tickets and offers the choice of extending a season ticket by another five days, or using the tickets for days out with friends and family."
