Turnover of £1bn – but train firm’s profits flat

TURNOVER at rail franchise operator South West Trains has topped £1billion for the first time as a result of rising ticket sales and a rise in Government subsidy.

The train operator, which runs services from London Waterloo across Southern England and on the Isle of Wight, saw revenues jump from £910million to £1billion for the 53 weeks to May 2, 2015, but profits remained flat at £29.4million.

Revenue support from the Government increased from £160million to £168million, but the cost of its franchise also went up from £461million to £554million. Last week, the Government invited expressions of interest from operators wanting to run the franchise from 2017.

Dividend payments to its parent company, transport giant Stagecoach, were down on the previous year, from £16million to £11million, but the pay of its highest-paid director, likely to be managing director Tim Shoveller, rose from £401,000 to £456,000.

The latest figures from Network Rail showed that 90.5 per cent of South West Trains services arrived on time, compared with a national average of 89.5 per cent.

Company directors said that South West Trains had ‘continued to trade in a very challenging economic environment’ and said that new carriages, which will be introduced early next year, will add an extra 23,000 peak-time seats each weekday. However, they added that they had noticed a ‘downward trend in attendance’ by staff and was addressing this by a series of initiatives including minihealth checks for employees.

Meanwhile, accounts for online ticketing company Trainline.com show that ticket sales grew 13 per cent last year to £1.6billion, while group turnover increased 10 per cent to £118million.

The company was bought by private equity firm KKR in March this year for about £450million from Exponent which had previously tried to sell it before scheduling a public listing. In spite of increased sales and turnover, the company made a pre-tax loss of £7.6million, down from a £4million profit the previous year, mainly due to the £14million cost of the cancelled listing.