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‘Free money!’ Avanti West Coast bosses caught joking about UK government handouts
(www.theguardian.com)
Bring back Virgin Trains!
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Avanti West Coast managers joked about receiving “free money” from government and performance-related payments being “too good to be true” in an internal presentation at the notoriously unreliable train operator, it has emerged.
The firm, a joint venture between First Group and TrenItalia, was awarded a new long-term contract last year by the government to run Britain’s major intercity service despite a poor record of cancelled and late-running trains.
Avanti confirmed the contents of the presentation but described the wording, in slides seen by the Guardian and first reported in Novara Media, as “regrettable”.
A fuller version of the employee survey, seen by the Guardian in December, showed only 3% said they felt valued, and only one in five agreed that the firm was “committed to delivering good service for its customers”.
The fact the company feels emboldened to boast that they get “free money” is down to the ridiculous system of rail ownership in this country.
Ultimately, profit-driven companies who receive huge public subsidies have failed to deliver for railway workers and passengers alike.”
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
was awarded a new long-term contract last year by the government to run Britain’s major intercity service despite a poor record of cancelled and late-running trains.
Something Private Eye pointed out is the current Tory government is awarding new LONG franchise contracts to these companies to poison Labour from renationalising the railways unless they're willing to buy out the franchise owners at great cost.
So don't expect Labour to come in and nationalise the railways - Tories have fucked us all over.
Yeah, but, cool, but where's the link to their careers page so I can get a job there in management?