29 November 2017
RMT Press Office:
RMT slams latest corporate welfare racket on East Coast mainline
Rail union RMT today slammed the Tory Government’s announcement that the East Coast rail franchise will be terminated three years early to be replaced with a new partnership model.
The move will allow the train operator’s, Virgin Group and Stagecoach, to avoid paying huge sums back into the public purse as the franchise was deliberately weighted so that the bulk of the payments would be made towards the end of the franchise, which was due to run until 2023.
Once again the taxpayer will now pick up the burden of absorbing these revenue losses, just as they bailed it out the last time the train operator handed back the keys, whilst the privateer fat-cats laugh all the way to the bank.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“This is another outrage on the scandal-ridden East Coast where a successful public sector operation was smashed up to allow the private rail companies another run at ripping off the British people.
"The only solution to this government-sponsored racketeering is a return to public ownership and an end to corporate welfare at the taxpayers expense.”
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