Season ticket holders, on West Midlands Railway (WMR) and London Northwestern Railway (LNR) services, will not have to pay the upcoming national fares rise.
West Midlands Trains (WMT) has announced a discount on season tickets that more than covers the annual 2.8% increase.
Following a drop in train performance since May, WMT pledged to compensate passengers and have now announced this measure will take the form of a 3% reduction in the cost of weekly, monthly and annual season tickets, offsetting the upcoming national fares rise on Thursday 2 January 2020.
Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, managing director of West Midlands Trains, which operates WMR and LNR services, said: “In recognition of the poor performance, this compensation package is for our regular customers when they renew their season tickets will offset the national fares rise."
"We have said for some time now that performance and timekeeping since the May 2019 timetable has not been good enough. The timetable added too much complexity which means that even minor delays transmit through the network. Some changes were made in the December 2019 timetable change to remove the complexity, and to add capacity, but the most significant changes to reintroduce simplicity will be implemented in the May 2020 timetable. I apologise again to customers for the poor performance and cancellations since May."
"As well as the timetable simplification in May, 2020 will also see the arrival of the first of our new trains, boosting capacity on our diesel services in the West Midlands."
In recognition that poor performance has affected more than just season ticket holders, there will be a summer ticket promotion that will be announced in due course.
These compensation packages are in addition to the £2.5million West Midlands Trains has paid in Delay Repay claims since May 2019.
Earlier this month, the train company began operating a new simplified timetable designed to reduce delays and cancellations. It also introduced 16 additional carriages to create more capacity. A further 24 carriages will be added in the first few months of 2020.
The 3% reduction for weekly, monthly and annual season ticket holders will apply for a 12-month period starting on Thursday 2 January 2020.
Any passengers who purchased an annual season ticket on or after Sunday 15 December 2019 will also be able to reclaim the discount.
The discount will apply for 365 days from the purchase of the season ticket.
