Greater Anglia rail franchise clause at centre of dispute involving Abellio
A row between rail officials in Holland and Britain has spilled over into 2020, after train operator Abellio continued to take heavy losses from a clause in one of its UK government contracts.
Abellio is a subsidiary of Dutch state-owned company Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS).
Read more: Rail: Williams review recommendations ‘could take 10 years to implement’
It is still trying to rework a “flawed” clause in its franchise agreement for the Greater Anglia rail network.
Pre-tax profit for Greater Anglia fell more than 70 per cent last year to £1.7m.
This comes despite sales rising eight per cent to £701m.
Last year, Dutch officials threatened sue over a clause linking payments from Abellio to the Department for Transport (DfT) to London employment figures.
The same clause has hurt the finances of South Western Railway. The operators of that line – First Group and MTR – are also disputing the mechanism.
An Abellio spokesperson said: “We are in discussions with the DfT as the mechanism is not working as intended.”
The news was first reported by the Sunday Telegraph.
Meanwhile, the Scottish government stripped Abellio of its Scot Rail franchise last month, meaning the firm will stop running lines in March 2022, three years before its ten-year contract ends.
Separately, last week transport secretary Grant Shapps also said plans to strip Northern Rail of its franchise have begun.
Shapps said that the process to take away routes from the rail operator has already begun due to its “completely unacceptable” performance over several years.
Read more: Northern Rail franchise likely to be scrapped
A wide-ranging independent review into Britain’s railways, headed up by former British Airways boss Keith Williams, was due to land late last year.
However, it is yet to be published, and is now expected in early 2020.