6 October 2021
Train leasing companies pay out nearly £1 billion in dividends during the pandemic Introduction As Britain’s railways struggle, the pandemic profiteering in rolling stock continues unabated with almost £1 billion in payouts to offshore owners. In this briefing we look at the Roscos’ dividend payments, where their money is going and whether their claims to be major investors in the railways hold any water. While passengers face service cuts and a new period of Beeching-style axe-wielding, and staff endure pay cuts and attacks on their jobs, one thing has remained absolutely unchanged during the pandemic: the ongoing looting of the railways by the rolling stock companies (Roscos).
Pandemic payouts As Table 1 shows, during the year in which the Coronavirus devastated Britain, the three Roscos paid out dividends worth £950 million. £950 million is equivalent to 50% of the passenger revenue generated during the pandemic year and 23% of the total government support to the Train Operating Companies over the financial year 2020-21.1 •
During the pandemic year of 2020 Eversholt, paid a £46.5 million dividend.
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Porterbrook recently announced that it was paying £80 million to its overseas owners.
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Angel Trains’s main UK operation (Angel Trains Limited) didn’t pay an ordinary
1
Passenger revenue was down to £1.9 billion in 2021-22. https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/1946/passenger-rail-usage-2020-21-q4.pdf; Government support through EMAs and ERMAs in 2020-21 amounted to £8.3 billion DfT payments to passenger rail operators under emergency agreements - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)