| rail-subsidy-indicator_1.pdf |
Playing the subsidy game
Southeastern is the second most highly subsidised train operating company (TOC) in the UK, costing a total subsidy of £341.8 million in 2012/13. Its overall subsidy is far in excess of any other operator serving London and the South East.
Click the rail-subsidy-indicator button above to download a comparison of the official figures
Southeastern also has the highest operating costs of any TOC, only surpassed by the much larger First Great Western and Virgin.
All of which makes justifying a business case for stopping HS1 trains in Deal and Sandwich a pretty farcical exercise. We are talking about a drop in the ocean compared to the huge amounts of public money already being spent keeping the system running.
In other words, the DfT is proposing a far higher standard of economic viability for our service than it demands from any of the other stops along the line.
Which is absurd! Passenger rail services in this country have almost certainly never paid. Until the post war period freight made all the money for railways. Losses began when freight went to roads. Until it did the profits cross-subsidised passengers.
It is not that Deal and Sandwich can not meet this artificially high standard for retaining and expanding our rail service - but it is wrong that it should be demanded, it wastes resources to prove and is inevitably an artificial exercise.
To Deal and Sandwich the HS service is by far the most vital economic lifeline.
Click the rail-subsidy-indicator button above to download a comparison of the official figures
Southeastern also has the highest operating costs of any TOC, only surpassed by the much larger First Great Western and Virgin.
All of which makes justifying a business case for stopping HS1 trains in Deal and Sandwich a pretty farcical exercise. We are talking about a drop in the ocean compared to the huge amounts of public money already being spent keeping the system running.
In other words, the DfT is proposing a far higher standard of economic viability for our service than it demands from any of the other stops along the line.
Which is absurd! Passenger rail services in this country have almost certainly never paid. Until the post war period freight made all the money for railways. Losses began when freight went to roads. Until it did the profits cross-subsidised passengers.
It is not that Deal and Sandwich can not meet this artificially high standard for retaining and expanding our rail service - but it is wrong that it should be demanded, it wastes resources to prove and is inevitably an artificial exercise.
To Deal and Sandwich the HS service is by far the most vital economic lifeline.
