TRANSPORT: Controversial penalty system off due to staff shortages

BELEAGUERED rail firm Connex will not introduce its "football style" fine system next week because it does not have the staff.

The French-owned operator says plans to blitz fare dodgers from January 1 by replacing the £10 on-the-spot penalty with a "yellow and red card" scheme will have to be put back until April.

The company buckled under the threat of legal action from passengers who could not buy a ticket because stations were not manned or there were no ticket machines.

In a separate blow, it was reported there was outrage that the company planned to charge up to £50 as an "administration fee" with the first warning.

A Connex spokesman insisted no decision had been made as yet but admitted it could be as much as £50.

She added: "It will depend on our performance. If our performance is very low that will be reflected in how much we charge."

The news comes days after Connex South Eastern was slapped with a £10.5m fine by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) for under-achieving.

Most of the fine, double the amount it had to pay out last year, was for late trains.

The company, which lost the South Central franchise because of poor performance, was the second worst London operator. Only South West Trains, which has suffered industrial action over pay, fared worse.

A Connex spokesman said: "This is a great deal of money and clearly reflects the poor performance in very difficult circumstances. It is not up to what our customers expect and we are continuing to strive for improvements."

Connex says it will focus on maintaining the trains and infrastructure.

It will also be working with Railtrack to secure more trains for its service.

Rail regulators SRA revealed in a recently-published report, On Track, fines for the country's 25 rail operators would be a record £136m.

Last year's fines totalled £40m.

December 21, 2001 16:00