(24 May 2014, 8:48 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Why give them in the first place?
The revenues per year (over a 7yr period) is predicted to be £1.3bn as well as £1.1bn revenue in franchise payments per year.
Go ahead get that AND millions of pounds for doing their job by getting trains to run on time.
The Government hand over £9bn and generate £3.5bn profit over 7yrs.
I struggle to see any benefit to the taxpayer in that deal at all.
That £9bn from the Government is to cover Go ahead operating costs! The Government are giving a multi-national company £9bn so they can run trains.
Howay man - all it needs is for the penny to drop and someone in the Government to realise that instead of turning a £3.5bn revenue profit by whore-ing out this particular railway, they could generate £12.4bn by keeping it in house.
They could generate 12.4bn, but then take away the cost of operating it you are probably still down to the same figure for profit, but if the government wants to franchise the railways out, thats the name of the game, I dont blame Go Ahead or any other train operator.
Figures quoted yesterday I believe said Go Ahead would only be making around 3% profit, which lets be honest is not that good.