UNDER-FIRE train company Avanti West Coast has been “rewarded for failure,” Labour said today  after it emerged that the network’s worst-performing operator has received more than £17 million in performance and management fees.

The taxpayer-funded handouts, signed off by Tory ministers, include almost £4m in bonuses paid between 2019 and 2021 for “operational performance, customer experience and acting as a good and efficient operator.”

However, the firm, partly owned by Italy’s state railway company, has received more than 50,000 complaints over the last two years, the most of any operator, with almost half of its services arriving late.

Avanti raised fares over the same period, with an open return from Manchester to London reaching an eye-watering £369.40.

The company, whose contract is up for renewal in October, was condemned earlier this week when passengers were forced to climb a fence at Oxenholme station in Cumbria due to being locked in after their train arrived 100 minutes late.

Transport unions also slammed bosses for blaming their decision to slash services by up to two-thirds on “severe staff shortages owing to the current industrial relations climate.”

Labour shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh warned her Tory counterpart Grant Shapps that he “cannot continue to wash his hands of responsibility” after the Department for Transport (DfT) ruled out fining the troubled firm.

She renewed calls for ministers to end the “fiasco” and urgently demand a plan from Avanti for the full restoration of services, the recovery of public cash for undelivered services, adding that, if necessary, the company should be stripped of the contract.

“This government has willingly sat back and rewarded failure, handing over millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money for an abysmal service,” she said.

“It’s time for ministers to wake up, do their job and hold this failing operator to account.”

Ms Haigh also blasted Mr Shapps for claiming during a BBC Breakfast interview today that the company is operating four direct trains an hour between London and Manchester, despite only one being scheduled on its emergency timetable.  

“Major cities are being cut off, passengers are battling shockingly bad services and the man in charge can’t even be bothered to get the basics right,” she said.

“Clueless, hapless ministers should stop making it up as they go along and get these vital services restored.”

A DfT spokesperson claimed that performance-related payments were “independently evaluated,” adding it would continue to meet Avanti to “discuss its delivery for passengers.”