By Eric King-
Network Rail paid nearly a million pounds in damages to passengers hurt or injured at railway stations. It paid out £28,000 after a passenger “possibly slipped” on pigeon poo at Paddington station and £17,000 after a passenger slipped on an uneven surface while walking towards a train at Euston.
Details of the compensation figures were revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC.
A total of more than £950,000 was paid out by Network Rail for 290 claims over the past five years for slips, trips and falls resulting in compensation claims at the 20 stations it manages in England and Scotland.
Some of the compensation money included claimants’ legal costs.The largest single payout was £40,000 after a passenger “slipped on some liquid and landed heavily on their right hip” at London Charing Cross.
Network Rail’s head of claims and insurance, Philip Thrower, said: “We’re a big company that takes our responsibilities seriously.
“With tens of millions of people using our stations every day; only a tiny fraction of a percent experience a mishap.
“If we are at fault for causing damage or injury to anyone, we rightly compensate them for those accidents and put in place new ways of working to stop them from happening again. A passenger who slipped on “discarded tomato sauce” on the concourse at London Liverpool Street, hurting their wrist and both knees (£6,000).