Taxpayer bails out C2C

Taxpayers are to foot a £15 million bill to bail out private rail operator National ExpresThe firm, which operates C2C routes between London and Essex, should pay the government more than £12 million a year to supply the service. But it has emerged than National Express will pay nothing and will receive a £2.4 million subsidy from the government instead — costing the taxpayer a total of £15 million

The Department for Transport said C2C paid the £12 million premium in 2011-2013. However, from May this year until September 2014 the company will receive a subsidy of £2.4 million instead, leaving the public purse to bridge the gap.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT rail union, said the union had warned that “if franchises weren’t taken into public ownership in the wake of the West Coast shambles that the train operators would bully their way into a monopoly tendering situation and would be able to mug the public in broad daylight”.

And that is exactly what has happened on the first route under these special measures.

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