Head Office Circular No. NP/028/15/MC
To the Secretary all Branches,
Council of Executive members,
Regional Councils and Regional Offices
Wednesday 18th February 2015
Dear Colleagues,
GB rail industry financials information 2013-2014
The ORR has published its report GB rail industry financials information 2013-2014. This outlines the current financial state in the rail industry and highlights:
• The government / taxpayer continues to be a net funder of train operating companies to the tune of £3.8bn.
• All but 2 of the TOCs are net recipients of public funding
• One of those is East Coast, which was a net contributor of £23m to the UK government in 2013/14 – clearly demonstrating the success of the publicly owned model for East Coast.
• This is particularly true when we compare the 3 biggest inter-city providers, as below:
East Coast First Great Western Virgin West Coast
Total payments to government £217m £296m £97m
Total payments from government (franchise receipts + revenue support + NR grant) £194 £514m £322m
Total net payments to government £23m -£218m -£225m
Total net payments by passenger journey £1.15 -£2.19 -£7.03
Total share of govt funding -0.6% 5.8% 5.9%
• Despite receiving net funding of £3.8bn, TOCs collectively paid out £183m in dividends to shareholders.
• The 12 TOCs that paid out dividends of £183m in total, were net recipients of £2.66bn in public subsidy, see below:
TOC Net funding Dividend payment
c2c Rail -£41m £8m
Northern Rail -£669m £27m
Southeastern -£324m £5m
Southern -£90m £23m
South West Trains £51m £16m
First Capital Connect -£25m £5m
First Trans Pennine Express -£209m £30m
Arriva Trains Wales -£331m £16m
Virgin Trains (West Coast) -£225m £10m
LOROL (London Overground) -£127m £5m
Merseyrail -£125m £16m
First Scotrail -£544m £21m
Total £2.66bn £183
The full report is available here: http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/16997/gb-rail-industry-financials-2013-14.pdf
RMT will continue to campaign for full renationalisation to put an end to this rip-off.
Yours sincerely,
Mick Cash
General Secretary