Grant Shapps wants rail fares paid to independent body

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has come under fire from opposition politicians and unions for reportedly saying that franchised operators should be ‘paid when they run trains on time’. He was being interviewed in the wake of an ORR announcement yesterday that a new punctuality measurement will no longer allow trains to be five or ten minutes late at their final destinations and yet still be considered ‘on time’. Instead, the margin for lateness will be just 60 seconds. Mr Shapps was asked whether giving franchises incentives to be punctual meant that they could lose their contracts for poor performance, or if bonuses were a possibility. He answered: ‘If you don’t run trains on time, don’t pay them.’ But he also had a new and radical idea about how fares revenue should be handled.