A PLAN to re-privatise the East Coast franchise "defies all economic logic", unions have claimed after figures were published showing big profits and a return of almost £217 million to taxpayers.
Directly Operated Railways (DOR), which runs the London to Scotland East Coast main line for the Department for Transport (DfT), has said it made a pre-tax operating profit of £225.3m in 2013/14. This has resulted in the DfT receiving £216.8m in payments.
Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: "These latest results from East Coast prove conclusively that a publicly-run railway benefits both the taxpayer and passengers."
Mick Cash, acting general secretary of rail union the RMT, added: "Reprivatisation of East Coast defies all economic logic and is nothing less than an act of industrial vandalism which will spark off a fresh wave of public anger over the racketeering on our railways."
DOR has run East Coast since November 2009 after the private-sector operator National Express pulled out.
But the Government is taking the East Coast franchise private again, with a new private sector operator due to start at the end of March 2015.
A DfT spokesman said: "The amount of money East Coast returns to the Government has nothing to do with whether it is privately or publicly run. East Coast currently runs older trains and operates fewer services than West Coast, its nearest competitor. Therefore its costs are lower and it is able to return more money to Government.
"We're addressing that by investing in brand new trains and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of improvements to stations and track.
"A strong private-sector partner will be best placed to build on that investment and deliver more frequent, comfortable and reliable services for passengers."
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