Avanti West Coast Paid Out £20M in Passenger Refunds Over Three Months
The intercity operator's delay repay bill for the summer exceeded its annual profits from the prior two years.
By Samuel Peterson ·
Avanti West Coast distributed more than £20m to passengers over three months this summer to compensate for disrupted journeys.
The payout timeline shows a sharp concentration in midsummer: the operator paid out £9.3m in the four weeks ending July 25, then another £12.2m across the following eight weeks. The first figure alone approached the operator's annual profit for each of the previous two years.
The summer surge sits against a rising national trend. Department for Transport figures show total passenger compensation across the railway reached £150m in the 2024-25 financial year, up 8% from the prior year, with Avanti accounting for about 27% of that total at £40.5m. Avanti subsequently paid out more than £50m in 2025-26 and is expected to exceed £70m this financial year.
Performance data from the Office of Rail and Road shows fewer than half of Avanti's trains ran on time in July, with passengers delayed an average of 19 minutes, amid heatwaves affecting the network. Avanti said that between May and August it was directly responsible for 23% of those delays, with Network Rail or other operators responsible for the majority. GWR attributed its higher payments largely to repeated heatwaves, which caused track defects, points failures, speed restrictions and train cooling issues. GWR paid £29.7m in 2025 and LNER paid £28m.
Avanti operates under contracts introduced after the pandemic in which the Department for Transport pays operator fees, with the taxpayer bearing any profit or loss from ticketing income or refunds. The company is due to transfer into public ownership next year as part of Great British Railways. A DfT spokesperson said the department was acting to address the causes of disruption and was making refunds easier to claim.
Claims volume is climbing as well. The Office of Rail and Road recorded 9.1m compensation claims filed across Great Britain's railway in 2026, up almost 10% year on year, with 80% approved. Most operators now resolve more than 99% of claims within 20 days.
Avanti's delay repay program issues automatic compensation for journeys delayed by 15 minutes or more, and GWR follows the same 15-minute threshold, paying 25% of the fare. LNER begins paying after 30-minute delays.
Source: The Guardian
