
9 September 2015
RMT Press Office
RMT slams train overcrowding scandal while rolling stock companies make a fortune.
September 9th 2015
IMMEDIATE
RMT SLAMS TRAIN OVERCROWDING SCANDAL WHILE ROLLING STOCK COMPANIES MAKE A FORTUNE
Rail union RMT today blasted the “gross profiteering at public expense” on Britain’s railways as the official overcrowding report was published today: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459330/rail-passengers-crowding-2014.pdf
Headlines include:
· Overall peak crowding was higher in London than in other cities, with 4.1% of passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC) in London compared to 1.4% PiXC across the other 10 cities. The city with the most crowding outside of London was Manchester with PiXC of 3.3%.
· 139 thousand passengers were standing at trains’ busiest points on arrival into London in the morning peak, 22% of all passengers. 26% of morning peak trains were over capacity and in total 59% had passengers standing
· In the morning peak 563 thousand passengers arrived by rail into central London (Zone 1 of the travelcard area), a 3% increase from the year before. Just over one million passengers arrived into central London by rail across the whole day.
· The city outside London with the highest number of passengers was Birmingham, with 39 thousand passengers on board trains arriving into the city centre in the morning peak. Manchester had 31 thousand morning peak arrivals and Leeds 26 thousand.
“Passengers in excess of capacity” increased by:
· 1.2% nationally
· 0.4% outside London
· 1.4% in London
Meanwhile, RMT produced new figures which illustrate the massive profits the rolling stock companies (ROSCO’s) are bleeding from the system while passengers are paying through the nose to stand rammed in to their over-crowded carriages:
Angel trains
Profit after tax over last ten years has been 2006-2014: £1,219,000,000
Gross profit £1,430,500,000
Eversholt Rail Uk Ltd
2011-2014 4 years £88,729,000 gross profit
European Rail Finance Holdings Ltd (IR) Ultimate parent of Eversholt
2010 -2013 Profit after tax £605,962,000
Porterbrook Leasing Company Ltd
Gross profit 2006-2014: £1,196,486,000
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“Today’s rail overcrowding figures are a national disgrace. While much of the focus is on London some of the most overcrowded services are travelling from the North – an area where the attack on jobs and services from shelved investments and the threat to guards is at its sharpest.
“No part of the country is immune from this scandal while the private rail rolling-stock companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
“The case for retaining guards, reversing cuts and moving to a publicly-owned railway run in the public interest is now overwhelming.”
ENDS