Embattled FirstGroup, beaten in four rail franchise bids this year, has said it is leaving ??a strong legacy of continued growth and investment?? in Scotland.
Embattled FirstGroup, beaten in four rail franchise bids this year, has said it is leaving ??a strong legacy of continued growth and investment?? in Scotland.
Steve Montgomery, managing director of First ScotRail, was commenting on accounts showing that the business increased pre-tax profits by 33 per cent to £26million, and its dividend to parent FirstGroup by 75 per cent to £21m in the year to March 31. It will exit Scotland next March 31, having lost the Caledonian Sleeper and the ScotRail franchise in separate bidding competitions for Transport Scotland.
Mr Montgomery said: ??We were crowned Rail Business of the Year in October which our staff thoroughly deserve, having delivered significant improvements in customer service and performance. I'm proud of what they have achieved, particularly during this summer of sport where they truly excelled, delivering an extra 1.1m journeys. As a national rail operator, we have contributed towards a more prosperous Scotland with 86m journeys last year, up 34 per cent in a decade. That is a strong legacy of continued growth and investment."
ScotRail said that since it took over the franchise in October 2004, customer satisfaction has risen six points to 90 per cent, eight points higher than the UK average of train operators, and 1440 new jobs have been created. Staff engagement was the highest of any train operator in the UK and the group had received Investors in People Gold accreditation.
First ScotRail hiked its operating profit from £11million to £17m in the year to March 31, and its pre-tax profit from £19.2m to £25.7m, according to its accounts just lodged at Companies House.
They show last year??s turnover rose by £76m to £855m, largely thanks to a £59m rise in revenue grant from the Scottish Government to £506m, with passenger income up £20m to £317m, a rise of 6.5 per cent.
??The revenue grant increase principally relates to the increase in track access charges payable to Network Rail, as determined by the office of Rail Regulation,?? says the group??s strategic report.
??The original commitment to invest £40m in station enhancements, increased CCTV and passenger information coverage and additional ticket issuing facilities, is now complete with £42.5m of investment since the start of the franchise.??
A further £70m investment had been agreed when the franchise was extended for three years in 2011. Wi-fi had now been rolled out to 50 stations while the current year had brought further investment in stations and car parks for the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup, automatic ticket gates at Perth and Inverness, and an expansion of SmartCard facilities.
Staff numbers rose last year by 117 to 4781. Directors?? remuneration rose from £1.14m to £1.18m, and the rewards of the highest-paid, assumed to be managing director Steve Montgomery, rose from £386,000 to £408,000.
In May Scottish transport minister Keith Brown announced that outsourcing group Serco had won the Caledonian Sleeper franchise from April 1 2015, after Transport Scotland separated it from the rest of ScotRail.
In October, two days after winning the industry??s top operator award, First ScotRail saw the big prize of the daytime franchise snatched away by Abellio, the Dutch state-owned operator which already runs a string of franchises South of the Border.
It saw off competition from German-owned Arriva, Hong Kong-based MTR and National Express, which ran the franchise until 2004 and had recruited former ScotRail leader Mary Grant.
It got worse for FirstGroup last week when it was muscled out of the bidding for the East Coast line from Edinburgh to London by the Stagecoach-backed Virgin Rail, which already operates the West Coast line. Its promise to invest £140m and pay the government £3.3bn over eight years was said to be 15 per cent above the next bidder in a three-horse race.
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