BBC News Online: Business

Disruption hits rail firm's income

Anglia Railways has seen no growth in passenger income since last year

The company said the disruption caused by the repairs and emergency engineering work which took place after the crash meant it effectively lost a year's revenue growth.

GB blamed the rail chaos for contributing to losses of £1.8m for the six months to September, compared to a loss of £2.1m for the same period last year.

Passenger levels have also fallen since 11 September as people postponed trips to London.

Signs of recovery

Despite a grim few months, GB Railways' chief executive Jeremy Long told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that passenger levels were finally beginning to pick up.

Mr Long said it was vital that investment in the rail network continued as quickly as possible, but warned it could be hit by Railtrack's current problems.

"There is an enormous amount of maintenance and renewal work that has to go on in the network."

"The most important thing for all of us rail operators is to know that that is being done, to the highest quality and to the highest extent, and there must be some doubt hanging over that now with the pressure and the problems that Railtrack faces."

Break-even hopes

GB said its main Anglia Railways business had seen no growth in passenger income over the same period last year because of the Hatfield aftermath.

But there was better news from Hull Trains - 80% owned by GB Railways - which is expected to break-even next year.

In October the company had said it was in preliminary talks about a possible takeover or investment in the company.

In its results statement, GB said these talks were continuing, but gave no further clues as to who they were with, or the likely outcome.