How big are these penalties, and how have the privatised trains shaped up against British Rail?
In 1999-2000, the rail companies were penalised to the tune of £25.6m but were given £22.3m in rewards for good performance. The NAO says the number, punctuality and reliability of trains has been slightly better than under BR, with 87% of trains arriving within five minutes of schedule and 1.2% cancelled. But these figures conceal wide variations between different train firms. What about overcrowding on the trains? The report says OPRAF hasn’t had the powers to force companies to make more seats available. There is a set of rules which is supposed to penalise companies which don’t put enough carriages on trains at peak times, but the NAO says the penalties probably aren’t high enough. And there isn’t enough information about where the growth in passenger numbers is happening, and why. Why hasn’t OPRAF kept an eye on what its franchisees are really up to? That’s what the NAO would like to know. Not only did OPRAF fail to work out how to count passengers properly, but it relied on passe
