REWARDING FAILURE IN RAIL CONTINUES

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may 2023 :: RMTnews 22 RMT has revealed that Transport Secretary Mark Harper has allowed two private rail companies to be paid £82 million in dividends in 2022. This is the despite the fact both companies are part of a major industrial dispute where hundreds of millions of pounds has been used to indemnify them against lost revenue from strike action. FirstRail Holdings Ltd, the holding company for five FirstGroup franchises, and Govia Thameslink Railways, which runs the biggest franchise in Britain, have recently reported dividend payments of £65 million and £16.9 million respectively in their annual accounts for 2022. Two of FirstRail Holdings Ltd’s franchises, Avanti West Coast and Transpennine Express, have been the subject of public and political controversy after cancelling hundreds of services. In spite of this, the government has renewed or extended contracts for Avanti West Coast but it has kicked First off TPE this month. Govia won a contract to carry on running the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise from the government in October 2022 despite its sister company LSER being stripped of the Southeastern franchise for concealing public money. The DfT allowed Go-Ahead Group to conduct its own internal inquiry into the failings at LSER and renewed Govia’s REWARDING FAILURE IN RAIL CONTINUES RMT slams Department of Transport for signing off £82 million dividend payments to privateers REWARD: Govia Thameslink Railways paid out a dividend of £16.9 million last year ‘following permission given by the Department for Transport’.