Why on earth would a train operator care about timetables over basic ethics? They are human beings, not robots, you know?
The controller and driver both get paid either way, and I’m sure the train driver is used getting home late on occasion - and I expect they get overtime pay, so he may well be laughing anyway.
And the controller, or whatever they’re called, will just be seeing it as a PR issue. The slight lost money on the refunds (that passengers actually bother to put through) is easily worth the good PR.
Edit: Missed random words, impatient brain running too fast for fingers.
Why do you hate train drivers so much!?
A small delay for a single train, on a network of thousands, is not enough for the “evil train company” employees, that you seem to think that they all for some reason.
The world isn’t quite as black and white as you seem to believe it is!