Rayleigh and Wickford MP, Mark Francois has demanded that Abellio Greater Anglia, or as he prefers to call them, ‘Lesser Anglia’, pay financial compensation to commuters. In return for the fact that they are unable to use the Southend Victoria to Liverpool Street line for 9 full days, because of a closure for engineering works as part of the overhead line upgrade project.
Mark, who has clashed previously with Mr Jamie Burles, the managing director for Abellio ‘Lesser Anglia’ over the matter of compensation, has renewed his calls for commuters to be reimbursed for all the considerable inconvenience they will have to undergo in getting to and from London, by bus, whilst the engineering works are taking place.
Mark accepted that the engineering works are unfortunately necessary, including the replacement of the outdated 1950’s infrastructure which has led to overhead wires sagging and to severe delays, in particular during the warmer summer months.
Mark argued his case is even more compelling, given that ‘Lesser Anglia’ have recently made much of the fact that they have introduced ‘Delay Repay 15’, whereby commuters can be reimbursed if their train is 15 or more minutes late beyond its scheduled time. Mark is critical of the fact that the company refused to pay compensation over the 9 day blockade, because they are apparently in financial difficulty from trying to meet the criteria outlined when they bid for the franchise some years ago.
Commenting on his call for compensation, Mark Francois said
“Abellio ‘Lesser Anglia’ make much of their recently introduced ‘Delay Repay 15’ and that’s all well and good. However, if you can be compensated when your train is 15 minutes late, why can you not be compensated when it’s 9 days late?! We all know how famously tight ‘Lesser Anglia’ are – to the point where they are even restricting their catering offer for massively overpriced first class passengers – but it is now time they did something for my commuters as well. I challenge Jamie Burles to come onto the media and debate with me why he’s not prepared to pay compensation to my constituents for having to use a glorified bus service for nearly 2 weeks.”
