Train operator Stagecoach is set to receive an estimated £100 million in revenue support from the taxpayer after the Department for Transport lost a court case with the company last week.
As a result, the department is liable for topping up the company’s lower-than-expected ticket revenue from February of this year – and not from next April as it hoped.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow, whose union is preparing to strike in a pay dispute at Stagecoach subsidiary South West Trains, said the decision proved franchising was “a one way ticket to the bank for the train operators while the passengers get hit with a double whammy – subsidies out of their taxes and rip off fares when they travel.”
Transport secretary Philip Hammond announced this week an independent review of value for money in the rail industry. Ministers are unhappy that train operating costs are higher than at the abolition of British Rail.
